The Haunted Mansion
by 1000th Ghost
Summary: The story of Emily, the ghost bride, George, the ghost host, their secret daughter, and the mortal girl who stumbles into their presence.
1. Blue Pizza

Chapter 1

Blue Pizza

"What?!"

"Yes, yes, I know, but I got a new one…"

"Well, that's a relief…"

"Yeah…"

"Well, aren't you going to tell me what it is?!"

"Oh that, well…um…you know that new restaurant, The Blue Pizza?"

"Ha! I wouldn't eat any of their crummy food if my life depended on it. I mean, who in their right mind would dye pizzas blue? It just doesn't make any sense!"

"Yes, but dear, they're just trying out a new idea. Who knows? They could be really successful! At least I hope so, since I'm going to be working there from now on."

It took a few minutes for this information to settle into Noelle Lundby's head. Then…"Ahhh! You're gonna work in a _pizza restaurant? _A PIZZA RESTAURANT? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?"

"Now, honey, it really isn't so bad –"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, 'IT'S NOT SO BAD'? DO YOU KNOW WHAT KIND OF MONEY THOSE PEOPLE MAKE? DIRT, THAT'S WHAT THEY MAKE! HOW ARE WE GOING TO LIVE?!"

"Well, it's true that we can't afford to keep living here, but –"

"AHHHHHHH!! NO! NOT MY BEAUTIFUL MILLION DOLLAR HOME THAT I DESIGNED MYSELF!"

"Now, honey, please calm down! I already got us another home! It looks like a really nice place from the pictures. It's one of those old Victorian style mansions, and it's huge! Plus it comes with all of the furniture, which is good, since we can't afford to keep ours."

"SO WE'RE GOING TO DITCH OUR BEAUTIFUL HOME TO GO LIVE IN SOME OLD DUMP THAT YOU'VE NEVER EVEN SEEN? AND IF IT'S SO BIG AND GRAND, HOW COME YOU CAN AFFORD IT?"

"Well, it was very cheap, strange, huh, but it's better not to question why, but to enjoy it while you can. Plus, they have a river, and you know you've always wanted a river!"

"Mommy, what's all the noise? We could hear you outside!"

"Hi, kids!" she said in a happy, dreamy kind of voice. "Guess what? We're moving!" Then she wandered off mumbling something about rivers.


	2. The Drive

Chapter 2

The Drive

A couple of weeks later, the Lundby family was driving along toward their new home. Twelve-year-old Scarlet was attempting to read, eight-year-old Charley was deep into his Gameboy, and four-year-old Bob, or Bobby, was trying to destroy everything in sight.

"Mommy I want a cookie - Mommy I want a cookie - Mommy I want a cookie - Mommy I want a –"

"Be quiet, will you, I'm trying to read! I'm at a good part!"

"Ahhhh!" screamed Bobby, as he reached over and grabbed her book. He looked at the book in surprise for a second, and then started ripping it to pieces as fast as his little hands could go.

"Mommy stop him! He's wrecking my book!"

"**Yes!** VICTORY!" screamed Charley from the back of the car. Everybody turned to look at him. "I just defeated the twenty third level! It was really hard because you had to go past Veran, Sorcerer of Shadows, and I almost lost, except that I remembered that I still had that switch hook and seed shooter that I got from Impa on the eighth level, which was tough because it was guarded by the Great Moblin who –"

"Shut up already!" Scarlet shouted. "We don't care what happened to you in your imaginary electronic world!"

"Mommy give me a cookie! I want a cookie!" Then Bobby gave a blood-curdling scream, and started randomly thrashing about attempting to attack Scarlet and narrowly missing Noelle.

"Now, if you kids don't calm down –"

"But look what he did to my book –"

"Mommy, make Scarlet read to me or I'll –"

"NO! Onik, General of Darkness just –"

All of a sudden, they stopped.

"We're here!" said Charles Lundby.

The whole family looked up and gasped!


	3. The Arrival

Chapter 3

The Arrival

It was big alright. And there was no doubting that it was old and Victorian. The thing that they didn't expect was that it would be so, so, well, there was really no way to describe it. It was old and run down and had this kind of deserted, quiet look, like nobody had stepped foot in it for years. It also looked incredibly creepy, like something just out of a horror film. The fact that there was a rather large graveyard behind the mansion didn't exactly help the matter. They all stared in awe for a couple of minutes until a huge clap of thunder sounded right overhead and lightning cracked across the sky.

"It looks like it's about to storm," said Charles. "We better go inside."

"Mommy, I don't want to go in there. It's scary," whimpered Bobby. Just then a large drop of water fell on Noelle's cheek.

"Come on kids, we have to go inside so we don't get wet," she said.

The Lundby family slowly made their way up the long winding cobblestone driveway to the front door.

"Look at that!" said Charley, "There are horse shoe prints in the stone!"

"It's almost like an invisible horse was walking here!" laughed Noelle.

"It was pulling a hearse," whispered Scarlet softly.

"What honey?" said Noelle.

"Nothing."

By now, they were at the front door. The door had a wreath of decaying flowers on it.

Suddenly, they saw a little boy about six or seven sitting against the wall crying.

"Are you okay?" asked Noelle.

Suddenly, the little boy faded into the air until he was gone.

"Never mind," said Noelle. "I thought I saw something."

"This is spooky," shuddered Charley.

Charles slowly raised his hand and knocked on the door.

"What are you knocking for?" said Noelle. "It's our house. Just walk in!"

"Oh yeah," said Charles. "It just seemed like the right thing to do."

"Don't be silly," said Noelle. But just as she was saying that, the door started to open.

"H-hello?" said someone with a nervous, high, French accent.

"Who are you, and what are you doing in my house?" said Charles.

"_Your _house?!" cried the woman, throwing open the door. She was obviously a maid, in the traditional French maid uniform, and she looked depressed and frightened, but also quite angry. "I beg your pardon, but thees house, it belongs to my master, Master Gracey."

"I'm sorry, but this house belongs to me, as of today. We bought it through a real estate agent, at a very low price actually, and it is our house now. So you can just go and tell Master Gracey that he had better clear out of here, unless he wants a little visit from the cops."

"Oh, oh dear. Thees is no good, no thees is no good at all. Well, I suppose you all had better come in."


	4. The Foyer

Chapter 4

The Foyer

The Lundby family stepped into the foyer just as the door slammed shut behind them. The foyer was circular with heavy drapes and a rich green oriental carpet. There was also a rather large fireplace, above which hung a huge oval portrait of a young man.

"Master Gracey," the maid explained. "Oh, I just don't know what he will say about this," she mumbled, pacing the floor.

Scarlet looked at the picture. Was it just her, or did the picture look slightly different? No wait, the picture was different! The young man in his early twenties now looked like he was in his late forties!

"If you don't mind miss –"

"Ella."

"Yes, miss Ella, I would like to have a word with this 'Master Gracey'."

Charley glanced at the picture on the wall. Whoa! The dude was old! He looked ancient! He quickly looked away.

"I didn't see anything, I didn't see anything," he chanted to himself.

"Oh, very well. Who knows? Maybe he will like it. After all, we have so few visitors."

Bobby was getting quite bored of this conversation and had just decided that it might be time for him to cause a little mischief. He looked around for something to fuss about, and his eyes came to rest on the picture. The-the man! He was dead! He was a rotting corpse!

"Mommy!" he screamed and started bawling.

"Oh, my poor baby, did you hurt yourself?" she said picking him up. He buried his face in her hair and quietly sobbed.

"Thees way then", said Ella, leading them through a side door, and into a gallery. "Please drag your wretched bodies to the dead center of the room, and Master Gracey will be with you shortly." They turned around to see what she was talking about, but she had disappeared.

"Well, this is certainly strange," said Noelle.

"Hmm," murmured Scarlet, lost deep in thought. She was thinking because she had glanced at the portrait just before the family had gone into the gallery, and she saw that the young man was now a grizzly white skeleton.


	5. The Stretching Gallery

Chapter 5

The Stretching Gallery

"Whoa, check out the paintings!" exclaimed Charley.

There were four incredibly tall paintings on the wall: a young woman in a pink dress holding an umbrella, a man with a beard, a man with his arms crossed, and an old lady holding a rose. The gallery was octagonal with no furniture, just the pictures.

"When hinges creak in doorless chambers

And strange and frightening sounds echo through the halls

When candlelights flicker though the air is deathly still

That is the time when ghosts are present

Practicing their terror with goulish delight.

Welcome, foolish mortals, to the haunted mansion.

I, am your host, your _ghost_ host. Mwahahahaha."

"What was that?" squeaked Noelle.

"I don't know", said Charles, who looked quite alarmed.

Bobby was still buried in his mother's hair, to frightened to look up.

"C-can we go?" whimpered Charley.

The only one who seemed to be enjoying herself was Scarlet. She was always fascinated by ghosts and anything else paranormal. To live in a haunted house would be a dream come true to her!

"Ahh!" cried Noelle, "The pictures! They're, they're stretching!"

It was true. The pictures were stretching to reveal their true meaning. Each seemingly normal painting was revealing ghastly, horrifying scenes.

The young woman was now standing on a breaking tightrope over a pool of crocodiles. The man with the beard was now standing in nothing but his underwear holding an official looking document and standing on top of a barrel loaded with dynamite. The man with his arms crossed was sitting on the shoulders of another man, who was sitting on the shoulders of another man, who was up to his waist in quicksand! The old lady with the rose was now sitting on a tombstone on which read, "Rest in Peace. Dear Beloved George." At the base of the gravestone was a marble bust of an old man, with an axe through his head.

"Our tour begins here, in this gallery. Here where you see paintings of some of our guests as they appeared in their corruptible mortal state. Kindly step all the way in please, and make room for everyone. There's no turning back now.

Your cadaverous palour betrays an aura of forbidding, almost as though you sense a disquieting metamorphosis. Is this haunted room _actually _stretching? Or is it your imagination, hmmm? And consider this dismaying observation, this chamber has no windows and no doors, which offers you this chilling challenge, TO FIND A WAY OUT! Of course, there's always _my _way…"

All of a sudden, the poorly lit chandeliers went out, leaving the Lundby family in pitch blackness. Suddenly, the ceiling disappeared, and they could see a rotting skeleton hanging from the rafters! Apparently the ghost host's "way out" had been suicide. Suddenly the ceiling blacked out once more, and the long scream of a woman falling could be heard from above, ending with the final "thud" that meant death.

"Oh, I didn't mean to frighten you, prematurely… hmmm. The _real _chills come later", said the ghost host when the lights came back on. "Now as they say 'look alive', and we'll continue our little tour. And let's all stay together please."

They turned around to see what he was talking about and saw that a panel in the wall had opened. They quickly walked through it, and found themselves in a hallway.


	6. The Hallway

Chapter 6

The Hallway

The hallway was completely empty, except for a table, a chair, a reading lamp, and a book that sat in the far corner of the room.

"Maybe the book has a clue?" said Charley, unsure of himself.

"A clue to what?" asked Scarlet. "Everything is fine! What are you so worried about?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe the fact that a ghost just tried to kill us in there!?" screamed Charley.

"Don't you think you're overreacting? He did nothing of the sort. He just introduced himself, and he did a fine job of doing so I might add. Is there anything wrong with that?"

"Ummm…what?" asked Charley.

"Ha! You can't even follow me. Am I being too hard for you? Let me put it in terms that you might understand. Me right. You wrong! Do you have any questions about that?"

But Charley had already lost her, and was looking at the book. A dictionary to be more precise. A dictionary opened to the word "death".

Suddenly an old man appeared in front of them! He was dressed in an old fashioned suit, and carried a rotted cane.

"Excuse me", said Charles, "but do you know where we're supposed to go? Sir? Hello!?"

But the old man stared straight ahead as he obviously didn't hear him. He kept straight on walking, and walked right through the wall on the opposite side of the room!

"How rude", sniffed Noelle.


	7. The Corridor of Portraits

Chapter 7

The Corridor of Portraits

The family decided to set off to the right. When they did, they found that they were in a corridor that was lined with pictures on both sides. There was a picture of a young woman, that slowly changed into an old hag, a beautiful boat, that changed into a spooky ship lost at sea in a terrible storm, a young woman that turned into a hideous stone medusa, a knight on a horse, that changed into a skeleton, and an Egyptian princess, that changed into a cat.

There was also a lady in a pink dress with long blonde hair holding opera glasses and a black cat. Another lady was holding a black cat and was surrounded by numerous skulls with knives through them. An evil looking man was holding an axe with a noose around his neck. Another sinister looking man was holding a knife. There was also a mysterious glowing white man with his hands folded, a strict looking man and woman, a vampire, and a suspicious looking peddler. The last painting was of a ghost risen from the bottom of the sea, behind him his destroyed and forgotten ship.

All of the pictures' eyes seemed to follow them as they made their way down the corridor.


	8. The Library

Chapter 8

The Library

As the family exited the corridor, they found themselves in a library.

"Our library is stocked with many priceless first editions. Only ghost stories of course…hmm… And marble busts of the greatest ghostwriters the literary world has ever known. They have all retired here, to the haunted mansion. There are _several _prominent ghosts who have retired here from creepy old crypts all over the world. Actually, we have 999 happy haunts here. But there's always room for 1000. Any volunteers? Hmmm…? If you insist on lagging behind, you may not need to volunteer. Well, if you should decide to join us final arrangements may be made at the end of the tour. A charming 'ghostess' will be on hand to take your applications."

"Note to self", thought Scarlet, "get applications."

"Look!" exclaimed Charley, "The heads are looking at us!"

"Well, that's certainly not very polite of them", complained Noelle. "It's not very nice to stare."

All of a sudden, a book flew off the shelf, and landed at her feet.

"Ahh!" she screamed, "Who did that?"

As if that were some sort of cue, all of a sudden the library went insane. Books started pouring in and out of the shelves, lights turned on and off, a ladder moved back and forth, and a rocking chair moved forwards and back. On the chair sat a raven, who cawed at them evilly.

"Ahh! Incoming! Oh no! They've got me!", screamed Charley, doing a very dramatic fake death on the floor. "Don't worry", he whispered, "I'll be all right. Save yourself."

"Oh brother", moaned Scarlet, "get up already you faker, before I step on you."

Bobby was petrified. And bored. Only Bobby knew how to be petrified and bored at the same time. And right now he decided to deal with the petrified later and the bored now. He quickly glanced up and was shocked to find the room going crazy! He would have found it amusing, if he hadn't been on official business. He looked around the room, and his eyes came to rest on the raven. Perfect.

"Mommy I want the birdie-Mommy I want the birdie-Mommy I want the birdie-Mommy I want the –"

"Come on, let's get out of this madhouse!" cried Charles.


	9. The Music Room

Chapter 9

The Music Room

The next room that they entered was very dark. The only light came from the full moon that was shinning through a huge bay window behind an old antique piano. Through the window they could see a terrible storm raging outside.

"We find it delightfully unlivable here in this ghostly retreat. Every room has wall to wall creeps, hot and cold running chills. Shhh, listen…"

Suddenly strange, haunting, crashing music sounded around them.

"Would you look at that piano", said Charles, "it's playing!"

"And there's who's playing it", said Scarlet.

Sure enough, they could see the shadow of a man playing the piano, however, they could see no man. They listened while the ghost played his haunting refrain, but then…

"Mommy I want the birdie-Mommy I want the birdie-Mommy I want the –"

"WILL YOU PLEASE SHUT UP YOU LITTLE BRAT!", roared the "shadow ghost".

That was it for Bobby. He muttered the word "birdie" one more time, and then fainted dead away.

"Oh drat", complained Noel, "he's getting heavy!"

"I bet I can play better than you", boasted Charley.

"Oh really", replied the shadow ghost, who was still hammering away on the piano, "well I bet I can be dead better than you can be alive!"

"Huh…?", said Charley, clearly lost again.

"Oh brother", sighed the shadow ghost, "that kid has issues. NOW LEAVE ME SO I CAN PLAY MY SONG FOR ALL ETERNITY IN PEACE!"

"But –", started Scarlet.

"You heard the man, I mean ghost, I mean –"

"WILL YOU ALL LET ME REST IN PEACE??"

"Yes!" they all shouted, and hurried out of the room.


	10. The Witch's Hut

Chapter 10

The Witch's Hut

"Bubble bubble toil and trouble, you all come here on the double!"

The voice of these words came from a witch who looked a lot like Samantha from Bewitched, in a long black dress and witches hat. Next to her was a half cat half woman creature. The room they were in was full of all sorts of weird bottles and containers, and in the middle of the room stood a big bubbling cauldron. There were also two cats, one cat that was obviously an incredibly skinny, scraggily alley cat and one that looked like it had gotten run over by a truck. Amazingly, they were both walking around and acting perfectly normally.

"Of course!" thought scarlet, "They're ghosts! Wow! Real little ghost kitties!"

"Who dares to disturb the sacred…oh! A little boy!" exclaimed the witch, looking at Bobby. "Now you wouldn't mind if I use his brains in one of my little potions, now do you?"

"Oh, of course not, I mean NO!" cried Noelle.

"Whatever you say first counts!" cried the gleeful witch.

"Why you little!" screamed Noelle, as she charged at the witch. The witch mumbled something and pointed her finger at Noelle. Noelle stopped, and shot across the room.

"Rule number one", said the witch, "never try to outsmart a witch."

Noelle got to her feet and spat, "I HATE YOU!"

"Oh, you anti-witch people", sighed the witch, "you're all more trouble than you're worth!"

"You have to forgive her", explained Scarlet, "she's anti-almost everything."

"Oh. Well you're better than her," said the witch, "your mother's a pain. I'm Felicia Scratch, and I was here before you. I already heard that you guys were moving here, and I want to get a few things straight. She's allowed", she said pointing at Scarlet, "and she", she said, pointing at Noelle, "is most _definitely _not. This is Kitty. She's the result of a spell that…um…went a little bit haywire. But she's my assistant, and I like her better this way anyway. And this is Flatsy and Liney", she said pointing at the two cats, "they're Kitty's. She thinks they're her children. Don't do anything to them, or she'll attack."

"Are you dead?" asked Charley suddenly.

"No, I just happen to be in a haunted mansion for the random heck of it, OF COURSE I'M DEAD! WE'RE ALL DEAD! EVERYBODY'S DEAD! YOU HAVE ISSUES!"

"That's what the shadow ghost said. Are you guys friends?"

"That kid is annoying. Take him away before I stick Kitty on him."

"Ok guys, that's our cue to go", said Charles, and they hurried out of the room.


	11. The Endless Hallway

Chapter 11

The Endless Hallway 

Once out of that room, they found that they were in a hallway. To the right of the hallway was another hallway that was pitch black, and seemed to go on forever. In the middle of the hallway was a floating candelabra that swayed mysteriously back and forth.

"I'm gonna go catch up with whoever that is and see if he can help us", said Charles, as he took off running down the hall.

He came back two hours later. He said that he had just given up; the hallway was just too long.

In the meantime, Charley had had an interesting conversation with a chair that looked strangely like Ronald McDonald. After a while, Ronald decided that Charley was a happymeal, and attempted to eat him.

"Now that is just scary", said Charley, "I gotta say, of all the things here, that thing is just _scary_."

"Ring around the rosy", sang a small, slow, distant voice. "Pocket full of posies."

Suddenly, a little girl and boy appeared, running down the hall playing tag, and signing. They moved incredibly slowly, as if the whole world were going in slow motion.

"Ashes, ashes, we all FALL **DOWN!**" they shrieked, as they disappeared.

"I proclaim that we try somewhere else", said Charles, "Somewhere with no endless hallways and chairs that eat people."

They set off to the left, and found a hallway that was basically empty, except for a suit of armor. A _moving_ suit of armor. A moving, _running_ suit of armor. In an attempt not to have their heads cut off with his axe, they decided to climb the staircase that was to their right. They ascended the steps slowly, not knowing what they would run into next.


	12. The Corridor of Doors

Chapter 12

The Corridor of Doors

What they ran into next was yet another hallway, this one with bluish purplish wallpaper and eyes that followed you wherever you went. The hallway stretched on for quite a while.

"Hey Charley", said Scarlet, "Do you know where the song 'Ring Around the Rosy' comes from?"

"No, and I don't really want to either. But I suppose you're going to tell me."

"You bet! Anyway, there was this disease in England called the Black Plague that killed like, half the nation or something. You knew you had the disease if you had little red circles on you. Get it, "ring around the rosy"?"

"No."

"Oh shut up. Then they said that if your put posies in your pocket that it would cure you. 'Pocket full of posies'?"

"Yeah, ok, I get that part."

"There were so many dead people, that they didn't have enough room to bury them all, so they just threw them into a huge pit and burned them. 'Ashes ashes'."

"Whoa."

"We all fall down." Cause they're dead."

"Wow. And to think they made it into an innocent little children's song."

"Oh, I don't know, I think it's pretty cool."

On either side of the hallway were numerous doors, and halfway down was a photo wall with pictures of the ghost host's family. The pictures were of skeletons and corpses and were quite freaky looking, which is really all for the better. There was also a wall sampler that said "Tomb Sweet Tomb."

The doors were almost alive. At first the door knobs turned, then you could hear pounding from the other side, then screaming, then shouts of "Let me out!", then a door that was literally _breathing_, and finally a door that had a skeleton furiously attempting to get out.

"Don't you think we should help them?" asked Scarlet.

"What, help them get us?" said Charles.

"For all you know they're really nice", said Scarlet.

"Even so, I say we get!" said Noelle, "But I'll have to come back here. I just _love _that table!"

"Only you would think about decorating in a haunted mansion", sighed Scarlet.


	13. The Conservatory

Chapter 13

The Conservatory

They went out of the hallway and into a glass conservatory. Many of the panes of glass were broken, and rain from the raging storm was coming through them and making small puddles on the floor. The conservatory hardly had any plants, except for some dead flowers. The dead flowers circled a nailed coffin that stood in the center of the room. The raven from the library was sitting on the left end of the coffin, as well as a poorly lit candelabra. Suddenly, two green skeleton hands raised up the lid and cried, "Let me out of here!" However, it could only get so much of the lid off, as it was nailed shut.

"Don't scream!" the ghost host warned, "You may wake up one of our guests. Come this way, Madam Leota is waiting for us."


	14. The Clock

Chapter 14

The Clock

In order to go to Madam Leota, they first had to go through a hallway. In the hallway was an old grandfather clock. It was very odd, though, because it had thirteen hours instead of twelve! The hands looked like fingers and the pendulum looked like a demon's tail. As they watched, a huge shadow hand came over the clock and attempted to grab them. They hurried out of the way.


	15. The Seance Room

Chapter 15

The Séance Room

As they exited the hallway and came into the séance room, they realized that Madam Leota was nothing but a spirit, in fact, she was just a head in a crystal ball!

"All of our ghosts have been dying to meet you. Some of them can hardly contain themselves. Unfortunately, they all seem to have trouble getting through. Perhaps Madam Leota can establish contact. She has a remarkable head for materializing the disembodied."

"Serpents and spiders

Tail of a rat

Call in the spirits

Wherever they're at!

Rap on a table

It's time to respond

Send us a message

From somewhere beyond!

Goblins and ghoulies

From last Halloween

Awaken the spirits

With your tambourine!

Cpeepies and crawlies

Toads from a pond

Let there be music!

From regions beyond!

Wizards and witches

Wherever you dwell

Give us a hint

By ringing your bell!"

As she chanted her spell, various objects rose into the air, and started playing themselves. The raven sat on the back of the chair and looked at them evilly.

"Yo, dude, can't you like, summon up any rock stars? I mean, a bell? You are like _so _old-fashioned Mammy Lee! Whoa, mortals! I remember when I was a mortal. Wait, no I don't, but that's still cool. So, what brings you here mortals?"

"Uh, who are you supposed to be?"

"I'm Dude", said the hippie ghost, "and I'm dead. Ain't that strange? I always wondered what it was like to be dead! Oh wait, I am dead! Righteous! I can fly! Yippee!" he cried, as he flew around the room. "I must be like, Peter Pan's brother or something!"

"No you're not! You're a stupid, little, crazy –"

"I'm not crazy

I'm just a little impaired

I know, that right now you don't care

But stay awhile and soon you'll see

A different side of me

I'm not crazy

I'm just –"

"Ahh! Shut up, you little freak, before I turn you into an onion like I did before!"

"Awe, come on Mammy Lee, you know you love that song!"

"No, not really! It's bad enough having that stupid Victoria with her stupid parties next door without you here too! Interrupting all my séances! Why can't you just go somewhere else! We have an entire mansion you know! You're not confined to this room! Why don't you go annoy Victoria, I'm sure you two will have a lot in common!"

"Uh…what? Where am I? What are these mortals doing here?"

"Oh, shut up. But he does have a point for once in his stupid insignificant life, uh, I mean death. What are you doing in my séance room?"

"I don't know. It was next to the conservatory, so we came here."

"Yes, this is our house now. I still don't see _why _all you things –"

"Ghosts, Daddy, they're _GHOSTS_!" exclaimed Scarlet.

"Yes, yes, but what _meaning _do you all have here?"

"It's our house. I was one of the first ones here besides Master Gracey and…uh…someone else. I practically _own _this house! I was having the time of my life! I was having séances everyday! And then Dude, a lost, lonely, curious, annoying, crazy –"

"I'm not crazy –"

"Ahhh! Shut up! Do you see what I have to go through? Anyway, then _he _comes walking in here, and falls through the floor and dies. And now he won't leave me alone!" she finished with a scream.

"Hey, ya know what? Mammy Lee's like, A HEAD! Get it?"

"Naturally. Madam Leota has always had "a head" for the occult. Mwahaha!"

"Right on, ghost host dude! You rock!"

"Oh no, not that crazy little –"

"I'm not crazy –"

"Yes you are, you insane punk!"

"Uh…what? Who are you? Whoa! Mortals!"

"I give up."

"I need rest. GET OUT OF HERE YOU STUPID, INSANE, CRAZY-"

"I'm not –"

"I'M NOT TALKING TO YOU! I'M TALKING TO THE MORTALS! YOU KNOW, THE FRESH MEAT! I'LL GET YOU! I'LL GET YOU ALL! JUST LIKE I GOT THE REST OF THEM! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!"

"Ahh! She's gone insane!"

"RUN!!"

"The happy haunts have received your sympathetic vibrations

and are beginning to materialize. They're assembling for a swinging wake. And they'll be expecting me. I'll see you all a little later."

"No wait! Don't go! Whoa…"


	16. The Ballroom

Chapter 16

The Ballroom

They were overlooking a balcony. An _enormous_ balcony. And down below was the "swinging wake". It took place in the ballroom, and there were ghosts _everywhere_.

There were ghosts playing under the table and ghosts on the chandelier overhead. There were six dancing ghost couples who danced and spun around and around and around through furniture, like they couldn't stop. There were ghosts sitting at a long dining table, and, at the head of it, there was a lady who blew out a birthday cake with pink icing. Once it blew out, she would disappear, only to reappear again and blow out the candles. There were two pictures of two men holding revolvers. Suddenly, they turned and fired at one another before disappearing. There were even some children dancing and playing around the room. There was a grinning organist that was playing a very large organ, which played a haunting, waltzing refrain. Every time he pressed a note, a floating skull shot out of the organ and then disappeared. There was even an old woman ghost sitting in a rocking chair near the fire. Whenever she rocked forward she disappeared, but whenever she rocked backward she appeared again.

They watched this scene for a while, when they all realized something. Everything stayed the same! The dancing, the organ, the shooting, the rocking, the birthday candles, everything was the same! It just kept repeating itself over and over again, as though the poor ghosts were stuck there for all eternity, reliving this party scene.

"Ahhh!" Charley suddenly screamed.

"What?" cried everyone else, even some of the ghosts.

"I just remembered! I left my Gameboy in the music room! I set it down when I was talking to the shadow ghost! I've got to go get it!" he screamed, as he shot off to the shadow ghost's room.

"Uh huh. Yeah. So where were we again?" said Scarlet, who thought that Charley was being really stupid to risk his life for a stupid electronic thingy, and, anyway, something was bound to have done something with it by now. Someone probably turned it into a chicken or something.

"Well, let's carry on then. This way", said Charles.

His way apparently was a set of rickety old stairs that no doubt led up to the attic. As they climbed up them, they saw two drunken ghosts sitting on a large, dimly lit chandelier.

"Good luck!" one of them called, "You're gonna need it!"


	17. The Attic

Chapter 17

The Attic

Thump thump. Thump thump. Thump thump.

That was the first thing that they heard once they entered the attic. The attic was almost pitch black, except for a huge window through which they could see that the storm was over. Now the night sky was quite clear, with stars here and there. They stumbled along in the poorly lit area, running into and tripping over many random old objects that littered the floor and the path that they attempted to walk on. The objects included everything from trunks to nooses, from statues to books, from furniture to cleaning supplies.

Cleaning supplies? What were they doing there? Suddenly, **POP!** Out popped a freaky looking ghost thing that was glowing blue green and had skeletal features.

"I DO!" he screamed, as he popped back behind the cleaning supplies. Everybody screamed at it, except for Scarlet. She thought he was nice, not scary.

"People really have a bad opinion of ghosts", she thought, "they're just like us, only they look a little different. They still think like regular humans. They **ARE** regular humans, just dead! That's not their problem! People are mean!"

The strange thumping sound kept getting louder, as well as a pounding, freaky version of "Here Comes the Bride." As they walked along, more of the "groom ghosts" kept popping up, startling everybody, and screaming "I DO!"

They were about halfway down the attic, when, all of a sudden, an army of bats swooped down from the ceiling and flew out the window. Suddenly, something came up from behind Noelle and grabbed her!

"I vant to suck your bvood!" it screamed.

"No you don't!" cried Scarlet.

The thing, which turned out to be a vampire, turned and looked at her.

"Vore vortals! Honey, you have got to see this!"

Suddenly, along came his wife, Dracula's bride.

"Oh bovy! Vresh meat!" she hissed.

"Wait, you can't eat us –"

"Oh no, dovn't vorry honey. Ve dovn't eat you, ve just drvink your bvood."

"Oh yes", said her husband, "you can't bevieve hov long ve have vent vithout bvood! There are no more vortals, so ve have nothing to drivnk. It is very deprvessing."

"Listen", offered Scarlet "we are going to live here, so you can't suck our blood. However, I give you permission to drink all you want out of the next mortal I see, provided that you don't kill them. I'll come back and report to you once I've found someone."

"Oh, thavnk you, vittle girvl, thavnk you!" exclaimed Dracula.

Meanwhile, the thumping noise was getting on Noelle's nerves. She hated repetitive annoying sounds. But she had just come to a conclusion, which made her quite happy.

"A washing machine! It's a washing machine isn't it?"

"Vhat is?"

"You know, that noise!"

"Vhat voise? You mean herv? Poorv vittle dearv. She hasn't a cvue who she is."

Suddenly, from the back of the attic they heard, "Someday my groom will come…" in a lonely, lost, distant, possibly insane voice.

"She's vo vashing machine, vat's vor sure. Ve don't even have a vashing machine in the whole vansion."

"**WHAT!?**" screamed Noelle, before she fell down in a faint. This was kind of weird, considering that she still had a fainted Bobby in her arms. Charles attempted to carry both of them, but this was just a little too difficult for him.

"I guess I have to stay here with them", he said.

"Can I keep going?" pleaded Scarlet.

"Uh yeah, sure. Just don't get lost or killed or anything."

"Don't worry", she said, as she set off toward the end of the attic. The groom ghosts kept popping up, and they were quite glad that people quit screaming when they popped up.

"I could really get used to this", thought Scarlet, "this is the most fun that I've ever had in my whole life! Imagine if I could be friends with 999 ghosts!"

As she walked, she noticed that the music kept getting louder, as well as the strange thumping sound.

"Thump thump, thump thump, THUMP THUMP, THUMP THUMP, THUMP THUMP, THUMP THUMP, **THUMP THUMP, THUMP THUMP, ****THUMP THUMP!!**"

Suddenly, out of the darkness, she saw it. It was dressed in a bride gown, that glowed blue and purple. It had long, billowing, grayish blond hair. It had a face that was completely black, except for its glowing, distant, yellow eyes. It was holding a bouquet of dead decaying roses in one hand and a poorly lit candle in the other. Most importantly, its heart glowed red with each beat. It was also very loud and was the source of the strange heartbeat. It was a ghost bride. It was an angry ghost bride too. You could see a slight look of revenge in her distant eyes. Scarlet was about to say something, when suddenly, the ghost bride raised her arms and lunged towards Scarlet! She would have pushed her out the window if Scarlet hadn't jumped out of the way.

She accidentally landed on a ghost. This ghost was a large cloaked figure who was skeletal. His head disappeared from his shoulders, and reappeared in a hatbox he held in his hand, and vise versa.

"Quick, this way!" he said.

He pulled her out the attic window, and onto a balcony.

"Go down that tree and into the graveyard, and she won't be able to get you."

"Thanks!" said Scarlet, and she proceeded to climb down the tree.


	18. The Graveyard

Chapter 18

The Graveyard

The tree was surrounded by more large trees, which all seemed to reach out their long skinny branches to grab her. On one of the branches was that same raven, which cawed evilly at her. He seemed to be everywhere!

She got out of the tree and walked towards the graveyard.

"Oh my gosh!" she thought, "A mortal!"

It was true. Standing in front of the gate to the graveyard was the caretaker of the mansion and his dog. The caretaker was carrying a lantern and shovel and was obviously too scared to be of any service. He was just staring into the graveyard, and, oh boy! What a graveyard!

She was about to examine the graveyard, when she realized, "Uh oh. Dog."

Scarlet was deathly afraid of dogs. They were the most evil, gross, disgusting, terrible, ugly, little monsters to ever have been invented. Ghosts were fine. Skeletons were fine. Big, creepy, haunted mansions were fine. Dogs weren't.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! Get rid of that thing will you!"

The caretaker looked around, confused.

"Please d-don't hurt m-me! I'll do anything!" stuttered the caretaker.

"I'm not a ghost!" moaned Scarlet. "I'm a mortal genius! Will you please get that dog on a leash?"

"Who, Skinny? Don't worry about him. He's to scared to move. So am I."

"Don't tell me you're afraid of ghosts? Why don't you go hang out with Ella, the maid? She's a mortal too. And besides, what did ghosts ever do to you anyway?"

"Well, um, nothing. They're just scary!"

"They are not! They're nice. Except that I kind of promised two vampires that they could drink your blood. You might not like them much."

"Y-you, y-you, YOU WHAT?!" he roared, "Why you little", he screamed, as he picked up his shovel and charged at Scarlet. "Skinny! Attack!"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" screamed Scarlet, as she ran towards the cemetery. She dashed inside the gates, and slammed and locked the door behind her.

"Phew", she panted, catching her breath, "No dogs. Just ghosts." Suddenly, she heard a wolf howl from somewhere in the cemetery. "Oh no, not again", she moaned. She decided to go through anyway.

The graveyard was crazy! There were ghosts everywhere, but that wasn't the crazy part. The crazy part was what the ghosts were doing. There were ghosts riding bicycles, a hearse stuck in the mud with a duchess and coach driver ghost drinking tea on top of it, a king and queen teetering on a gravestone with a princess swinging on a swing behind them, an open coffin with countless ghosts spilling out of it, an enormously fat woman opera singer singing with her husband who was incredibly thin, an executioner singing a duet with a decapitated knight, a small crypt with an incredibly creepy looking floating ghost in a white robe with glowing red eyes and a black face, three orange kitties singing with five owls, a mummy chatting away, a skeleton arm shutting itself in a brick wall, and many gravestones pushing themselves out of the ground and back in again.

42

O

n top of this there were five busts, one of them broken. Even though it was broken, it was singing along with everyone else:

"When the crypt doors creak

And the tombstones quake

Spooks come out for a swinging wake

Happy haunts materialize

And begin to vocalize

Grim Grinning Ghosts

Come out to socialize!

Now don't close your eyes

And don't try to hide

Or a silly spook

May sit by your side

Shrouded in a daft disguise

They pretend to terrorize

Grim Grinning Ghosts

Come out to socialize!

As moon climbs high

O'er the dead oak tree

Spooks arrive for the midnight spree

Creepy creeps with eerie eyes

Start to shriek! And harmonize

Grim Grinning Ghosts

Come out to socialize!

When you hear the knell

Of a requiem bell

Weird glows gleam where spirits dwell

Restless bones etherealize

Rises spooks of every size

M

wahahahahahaha!!"

All of the ghosts around the graveyard were singing this in some form or fashion. There was even a band playing instruments made out of bones. For the drum, they tapped on a tombstone with bones. The sky was filled with _hundreds _of ghosts with no definite shape or form, flying wildly in every direction. There were also many of the "groom ghosts", or at least ones that looked like them. Scarlet decided to call them "freas", because they were freaky looking.

Freaky or not, these ghosts were a blast! In no time, Scarlet was skipping among the stones, singing along with everyone else. Even when she finally came across the wolf, which was really just the skeleton of a wolf, did it get her spirits down. Nobody seemed to care that she was there, it was almost as if she were just another "ghost in the crowd".

Everything was just great, until Scarlet heard a voice from behind her.


	19. Emily

Chapter 19

Emily

"Come play with me", it beckoned.

The voice was small and quiet, and almost seemed like it was whimpering. At the same time, it was creepy. Creepy beyond creepy. It had a strange kind of hollow sound, which was almost like a whisper, yet it rang in Scarlet's ears like the toll of the bell of death.

For once, she was scared. Really really scared. She didn't know why, it was just _something_ about the voice that chilled her bones. And yet, there was also something about it that made her want to look and to see who it belonged to. She slowly turned around and was shocked by what she saw.

It was a girl. A girl ghost that looked just about her age, if you forget about the added hundred and something years. She was in a simple, plain, faded, pink dress, had long blond hair, and was holding two old fashioned dolls, one whose head was hanging by a thread, and both in very bad condition.

The girl actually looked pretty normal, as far as ghosts go, except that she had "death wrinkles" on her face. Death wrinkles are the wrinkles that people get around their face when they die that make their whole face kind of sunken in. She looked harmless enough, especially compared to some of the other ghosts she had seen, but Scarlet was still a little wary.

"Come play with me", the girl cried again.

She sounded so pathetically helpless that Scarlet couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her. Maybe she should go see her. She was probably just lonely.

"Lonely?" said a little voice in the back of her head, "With 998 other ghosts?"

Nevertheless, Scarlet started slowly advancing toward the strange ghost girl. The ghost girl slowly started to smile a strange sort of sad smile. The smile actually made Scarlet more afraid as she inched along, going more and more slowly with every step.

When she finally got to the girl, she looked down at where she was kneeling by a creepy looking gravestone with the face of a young girl carved into it. She looked into the ghost girl's cold, desperate eyes, and then slowly knelt on the ground beside her.

"H-hi", stuttered Scarlet. "Yeesh", she thought to herself, "I'm almost as bad as the caretaker!"

The ghost girl didn't say anything. Finally, she whispered in a voice as cold as death itself, "I want your soul."

"What?" shuddered Scarlet, "What do you mean –"

"Ha! Did you _actually _believe me?"

"Huh?" said a very confused Scarlet.

"I was just joking!" laughed the ghost girl. "I'm usually not very scary, I can't believe that I scared you! Wow! Anyway, I'm Emily, and I'm bored. Do you wanna play? You can be Julia", she said, holding out the headless doll.

"Wait a minute, you mean you're not gonna attack me or anything?"

"Nah, I'm not good at that. Besides, ghosts don't really want to _hurt _you, just scare you a bit. Well, except my crazy mother. She can be…uh… a bit eccentric at times."

"Really?" asked Scarlet, not the least bit afraid anymore, "What did she do?"

"Well, she has the strange tendency to push people out the attic window to their death. Pleasant, isn't she?"

"Whoa whoa whoa, wait a second, are you trying to tell me that your mom is the ghost bride?!"

"What?!" she exclaimed, "How could you think such a thing?"

Scarlet starred at her unbelievingly.

"How'd you find out anyway?"

"I happen to have made her acquaintance."

"Oh. Sorry about that. She doesn't really like mortals."

"No kidding!"

Suddenly they burst out laughing.

"So", laughed Scarlet, "so why does your mom push people out the window anyway?"

"For revenge", laughed Emily.

"Revenge?" asked Scarlet, suddenly interested, "What kind of revenge?"

"Uh oh…did I say revenge? I meant…uh…mayonnaise!"

"Mayonnaise?" asked Scarlet, "How gullible do you think I am?"

"Well, you did fall for my whole 'Give me your soul' thing."

"Come on Emily, what revenge?"

"Well, I'm really not supposed to tell anyone…"

"Oh, come on, Emily, you can trust me!"

"Well…promise that you won't tell anyone?"

"Not a living soul. Or a dead one for that matter."

They burst out laughing again.


	20. Emily's Story

Chapter 20

Emily's Story

"Ok", said Emily when they had caught their breath, "here's the story. My mother's name is Emily Cavanough Gracey. I was named after her

and –"

"Gracey?" interrupted Scarlet, "as in Master Gracey? The ghost host?"

"Shh, I'm getting to that", said Emily. "Anyway, Master George Gracey Jr., and yes, that _is _my father, was actually married before to some person, I don't remember her name, but her picture hangs in the stretching gallery."

"You mean that old lady?"

"No, that was his mother. She murdered her husband, George. When asked why, she said she got bored of his pointless stories."

"She killed him for that?!"

"She wasn't quite right upstairs", said Emily, pointing at her head. "Anyway, my father was sent to boarding school, and when he came back, when he was grown up, he became obsessed with finding the spirit of his deceased father. So he hired Madam Leota. Around that time, he got married to the lady, Lillian O'Malley Gracey, that's what her name was, you know, with the parasol over the crocodiles, and he built this mansion for her. If only he had listened to the people and not built it on cursed indian burial grounds! But whatever. Anyway, the majority of the people who worked on the mansion died in some weird, dramatic, gruesome way or another, but he still wouldn't listen and moved in. Now Madam Leota is secretly in love with him –"

Suddenly Scarlet burst out laughing. "Madam Leota?! That's a riot!"

"Yeah, and it gets worse. Well, Madam Leota was jealous of his wife, so one day she told her to do her old tight wire act. She used to be in the circus. She said no, but then Madam Leota hypnotized her, so she did her tight wire act over a pit of crocodiles. Madam Leota had secretly cut the rope partially beforehand, so she fell in the crocodiles, and died."

"Goodness!" exclaimed Scarlet. "She doesn't seem like the most pleasant character in the world, does she?"

"Ha! Madam Leota killed most of the people in the haunted mansion."

"Even you?"

"Well…no…I'll get to that. Anyway, he wasn't very happy because with all of the funeral expenses, he went quite broke. So, he went over to Winsocket, Road Island, where he was supposed to meet some of his "buddies". See, back when he was in boarding school, he went with some of his friends and became a pirate, so he actually never did go to boarding school. Of course, he had stopped his pirating ways after a while, but apparently his friends said that he could always "go back to them", if he was ever in need. He was pretty desperate so –"

"Did he kill anyone? While he was a pirate I mean."

"Oh sure, and some even when he wasn't a pirate."

"Nice family."

"Tell me about it. Anyway, he happened to overhear that a very wealthy man had just died, so he decided to drop by the funeral, since he had done some business with him before, and he thought there might have been something for him in his will. Actually, he had left everything he owned to his daughter, Emily, who was only sixteen, and rather stupid I might add. She had just had a humongous fortune dumped on her shoulders, and she didn't know what to do about it. Well, luckily George was there to take it off her shoulders. He proposed on the spot, and poor little Emily thought that he was some kind of romantic prince charming who showed up just in her time of grief, and she accepted."

"So he married her for her money?"

"Precisely."

"Sad."

"Yeah. Only it turned out to be kind of okay because they fell head over heels in love with each other by the time of the wedding. And she actually had me two days before the wedding, which is the strangest thing of all. So they were about to have the wedding, and they were having a little party before it, and Emily was still really young, so she wanted to play hide and go seek. Everything was fine, until it was her turn to hide, and she decided to hide in a trunk in the attic."

"And where were you?"

"No clue. No one even knew I existed, except for Emily of course. I think she was going to tell about me after the wedding. But she kind of never lived long enough to do that. So now no one knows who I am, not even Emily. She kind of lost her memory. And I can't tell anyone, cause they'll tell my father, and he doesn't even know I exist, but he'll tell Madam Leota, and when she finds out that my mother had a child, she'll most likely go berserk, and kill my mother and me–"

"But you're dead."

"There are things worse than death."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, but I bet Madam Leota will."

"I see. Go on with the story."

"Ok, so my mother went to hide in this big trunk in the attic. Unfortunately for her, Madam Leota was still in love with George –"

"Uh oh, I can see where this is going. Let me guess. Madam Leota locked her in the trunk, and it was so long for her. And then she went right back with Master Gracey."

"Wow, you're smart."

"So she died."

"Yep."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I hardly even know her. Besides, I see her all the time, even if she doesn't know who I am."

"I'm sure she kind of does subconsciously in the back of her mind."

"I hope so. But you're not entirely right. George was afraid that everyone would think that he married her solely for her money, which wasn't true anymore. So he decided to go to the funeral and proclaim his love to her in front of everyone. Then he would take her wedding ring and put it on his finger, saying that he would never take it off. So he was riding to the funeral in a horse drawn hearse, when something spooked the horse, and it took off, and the ring fell on the road, and the horse stepped on it, and it got implanted in the stone, and then the horse crashed, and everyone was okay, except that Emily's body fell out, and was never seen again, even though the area was searched. So that was that."

"Do you know where it is?"

"No. I would have done something about it if I knew."

"So why does she try to kill people?"

"Well, once she was a ghost, she somehow learned that George fell in love with Madam Leota, and that's what made her lose her mind. She just couldn't comprehend it. But she swore that she would kill Master Gracey for it. Unfortunately for her, some of her ghostly wedding gown was caught in the trunk, so she can't move from that spot. So now she tries to murder every mortal that ever comes by, just in case it's him. It never occurred to her that he's been dead for almost one hundred years. But she really still loves him, she thinks that she's forever standing at an eternal alter, and she's always saying, "Someday my groom will come." It's like a love story, only it's completely messed up."

"Wait, you mean that there really was a hearse where those horseshoe prints were, and that it was hers?!"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"I don't know", wondered Scarlet, "I just kind of _knew_!"

"Wow."

"So what happened to you? I mean, after all of this, where'd you go?"

"Well, someone sent me to live with these guys. They claim to be my uncles, but I don't really think that they are. Still, they're the only family that I ever knew. That's where I learned all this stuff. I guess that they know everything too, but they know that Madam Leota will do "something" if she finds out, so they don't say anything. I can trust them."

"But…I mean, why are you here? How'd you…you know…"

"Die? I don't mind. I'm quite used to it. I've been dead for almost a hundred years! This is how it happened. Well, my uncles, who were actually an escaped prisoner, a carpet salesman, and a hobo –"

"Ha ha ha!" Scarlet burst out laughing. "Sorry, but that's just funny! You were raised by an escaped prisoner, a carpet salesman, and a hobo?!"

"They're nice! They're a lot nicer than some of the people I've met!"

"Ok, ok, I'm sorry!" laughed Scarlet.

"It's okay!" said Emily, before she burst into laughter with her. "Ok, so my "uncles" kind of found out about me through eavesdropping and blackmail, they were kind of crooks, but they would never actually hurt anybody, don't get me wrong on this –"

"Don't worry", interrupted Scarlet, "I'm getting pretty used to your bizarre family history."

"Bizarre would be putting it lightly. How about completely crazy, wacko, and messed up?"

"Good point. Now get on with the story!"

"Ok, well we lived wherever and ate whatever, we were constantly on the move, and slept mostly in alleys and stuff, but let me tell you, IT WAS THE LIFE! It was so much fun. We really had it great, well until they died."

"They died?"

"No, they just kept on freakily living for all eternity. Hello! This was one hundred years ago! Of course they died! Doi!"

"Ha! I love your word."

"Me too. Anyway, we were just going around doing whatever, when they all died. It was really weird. The escaped prisoner was finally caught by some police and was shot, one was ringing someone's doorbell trying to sell a carpet, but when the person opened the door, they shot him, and one got run over by a car. They all died at _exactly _the same second."

"Whoa. Shockingly weird."

"I know. Well, I was really heartbroken, I mean my family just died in a second. So here I was, a little girl, lost in a big cold city. Well, I decided to set off for the mansion, to see if my father would take me in. I had learned a thing or two from my uncles and had soon…uh…'collected' enough money to get a train there. When I got there, it was really stormy, and creepy, and would you believe it, I was too afraid of the house to knock on the door!"

"I can believe it all right."

"Well, I decided to sneak in through an upstairs window instead, so I climbed up this really slippery ivy and –"

"You fell?" Scarlet guessed.

"Almost, but no. I made it through the attic window, but I, uh, kind of met my mother for the first time…and…uh…"

"You're kidding", gasped Scarlet, "Your own mother. Oh, how awful."

"Well, she didn't mean it. I mean, she did mean it, but she didn't know it was me. I went back and tried to explain to her who I was, and what she did to me, and she said that she was sorry, but the next time I went to see her, she didn't know who I was again, but at least I know she didn't mean to do it."

"Wow. That's still horrible though."

"You can't take it that way. I mean –"

"Don't worry. I know what you mean."

They sat in silence for a while, each thinking of the strange story. Then Emily unexpectedly said, "Hey, do you want to go meet my uncles?"

"Your uncles? You mean now? You mean, they're here?"

"Sure, they're in the crypt. Once, they learned that I was here, they came right over."

"Well, ok!" said Scarlet.

When they got up, Scarlet saw that the creepy gravestone read only one word, "EMILY."

As they walked along, Scarlet asked, "So what about the ghost host? And Madam Leota? What happened to them?"

"Well", said Emily, "it took him a while, but eventually he began to catch on that Madam Leota was evil and killed his wives, so he told her she had to leave. Well, apparently, Madam Leota doesn't like anyone telling her what to do, so she decided to trap him in her crystal ball, and control the mansion herself."

"I thought she loved him?"

"Well, yeah, but he was getting on her nerves. Anyway, he discovered what she was trying to do, so he tried to escape. She chased him all over the house, and finally cornered him in the attic. Rather than have his soul imprisoned forever, he hung himself from the rafters of the attic, and died just as Madam Leota cast her spell. Since he died, it kind of messed up the spell, and it backfired, so now _she's _trapped in her crystal ball for all eternity."

"Ha! Serves her right!" exclaimed a very angry Scarlet.

"Yeah, but would you believe that once they were dead, they fell in love with each other _again_?!"

"It's sickening. You'd think he would have gotten some sense by now!"

"Yeah I know, he's hopeless."


	21. The First Encounter

Chapter 21

The First Encounter

They walked along for a while longer, and eventually came to a humungous family crypt.

"How come your uncles are in the _family _crypt?" Scarlet whispered.

"I don't really know. Gus Gracey, he's the prisoner, kind of figured that he had a right to be there. The others just kind of came along. There are crypts all over the place, but this is the biggest, grandest one. It's an honor to belong here", whispered Emily.

"Why are we whispering?" whispered Scarlet.

"I don't know", whispered Emily, "I just have a feeling that something bad is going to happen."

"Ah, there you are! And just in time, there's a little matter I forgot to mention, BEWARE OF HITCHHIKING GHOSTS! They have selected you to fill our quota, and they'll haunt you until you return. MWAHAHA!" the ghost host's voice rang out suddenly, making both girls jump.

"Oh no, hide me!" shrieked Emily, jumping behind Scarlet.

"Well, I see that you have met, uh, someone. I don't believe I know you. What is your name child?"

But Emily was hiding behind Scarlet, quivering like a leaf, and refused to say anything.

"This is Emily", said Scarlet as she came to her rescue, "and she, um…what was it…oh yeah, and she drowned in the river outside the mansion. She's my new best friend."

"Emily", he said slowly, "lovely name." Then he suddenly remembered where he was and said, "Yes, well, pleased to meet you." Then addressing Scarlet he said, "What happened to the rest of your family? Did they die some odd mysterious death?"

"Oh, I forgot about them. Well, Charley forgot his Gameboy –"

"His what?"

"Uh, his checker board, and he's very fond of it, so he went in search of it, who knows what happened to him. Then Bobby fainted, and then my Mommy fainted, so my Daddy had to stay and watch them, and I went exploring. You have an awesome graveyard."

"Naturally. It's the pride of the mansion."

"So what were you saying about hitchhiking ghosts?"

"They'll try to follow you home. They always do that to foolish mortals. They'll haunt you for about a month, and then they'll come back. But be warned, those three are trouble!"

"Don't worry, Emily knows them. They won't get us. Besides, I live here, remember? So it's not as if they could follow me anywhere."

"Well, very well. As you wish. But you have been warned!"

They waited for about a minute, and then Emily whispered, "Do you think he's gone?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Phew", sighed Emily, "I'm still shaking! I thought I was a goner! Thanks for coming to my rescue."

"No problem. Hey, was that the first time you ever met him?"

"Yeah. He seems nice, even though I'm terrified of him."

"Yeah, but that can be expected."

Suddenly, that same raven appeared on the roof of the crypt, and cawed menacingly at them.

"Ok, that raven is just creepy. I think he's stalking me!"

"Could be. He's probably the weirdest one around here."

"How so? Besides the fact that he seems to be everywhere at once."

"Well, he's just about the only one here who isn't dead. Then again, he wasn't born either. At least not as far as I know."

"Sure, why not. Nothing around here makes that much sense anyway, so I guess adding nonexistent immortal birds to the picture won't change things much."

"Well, I can't help that he's a nonexistent immortal bird. You see, there was this lady, Elma Belle, and she was married to this guy, Richard. Then he died."

"Gee, isn't that pleasant?"

"Well, he just died! That was all there was to it. And then Elma, oh by the way, she's my father's aunt, was so poor that she decided to try painting for a living, except that didn't really work and she was still poor, so George invited her to live in the mansion. Then she went insane."

"Ok, good for her. What on earth does all this have to do with that stupid raven?"

At being called "stupid" the raven swooped down dangerously close to Scarlet's head but missed, and instead flew to a nearby tree branch.

"Same to you!" Scarlet called after it.

"Watch it. Don't make that thing angry, or you'll end up like Elma."

"What, insane?"

"Uh, maybe, but that wasn't quite what I was thinking. Well anyway, you'll see. Ok, after Elma went insane she bought a raven from someone or another, and it followed her everywhere. The strange thing is, she kept calling it "Richard", like her late husband. And then she went even more insane. She started painting constantly. Basically all the paintings in the whole house were painted by her. Strangely, she never painted the raven, except this one time where she had him "pose" for a picture, which turned out to be of her and Richard. And then she lost her mind and started having conversations with the paintings and the raven. Oh, and she had tea with them too."

"Tea. Uh huh. Right then."

"Yeah, crazy huh? Anyway, on the day she died, she painted that picture of my father that hangs in the foyer."

"Oh! You mean the weird one that grows old?"

"Yep. And don't ask me how she did it, because I have no idea. And then she died. It was the middle of the night, and everyone heard a scream, so they ran to her room, and found her dead with one hand pointing to the raven. And that's what will happen to you if you make it mad."

"You killed her, didn't you?" Scarlet asked, walking over to the raven."

The raven cawed at her in a way that almost seemed to say, "Yeah, whatcha gonna do about it?"

"Fine, go on living with your guilty conscience, see if I care!"

"And after he killed her and all, Master Gracey tried to catch him, but he couldn't, so he's still here. Oh, and at some point Madam Leota decided he was her pet."

"Well, they _do_ have the same personality."

"Oh, forget him. Should we go in?"

"Sure."

Emily, being a ghost, went right through the door of the crypt. She waited awhile, and then realized that Scarlet couldn't come that way.

"Sorry", she said, coming back out. "Here you go", she said as she pushed the door open.


	22. The Crypt

Chapter 22

The Crypt

They walked in, and immediately, the door slammed behind them.

It was pitch black, but as their eyes slowly adjusted, they could see that it was filled with coffins, some of which had bones hanging out of them. The crypt was very large and stretched back for quite a while. There was a long hallway with mirrors on either side and torches held by skeleton arms that were coming out of the walls.

"Hey Emily!" said a voice suddenly.

"Where ya been kid?" asked another voice.

"Awe who cares, she's here now ain't she?" answered a third voice.

Suddenly, Pop! Pop! Pop!, there stood the "hitchhiking ghosts".

"Hey, wait a minute", said one, "who's that other girl with her?"

"Search me pal. Who cares anyway?"

"Hey mortal! Yeah you! Guess what?" said a ghost.

The three ghosts raised their thumbs in the classic "hitchhiking" pose.

"We're gonna follow you home!" they said in unison.

"Yeah, and haunt ya till you get so scarred that you lose your mind and go insane!" shouted one.

Emily glared at him.

"Oh, sorry Em. Didn't mean it." He leaned over and whispered to Scarlet, "She don't like people to lose their minds. Family stuff."

"Well", said Scarlet, "follow me home if you must, but it be kind of pointless, considering that I live just a few feet away."

"Huh?" they asked, "You can't mean –"

"Yes I can, and I do too. My family and I just moved into the mansion."

"WHAT?! This is an outrage!"

"Mortals in the mansion?"

"Ha! Wait till Gracey finds out about this!"

"Yeah, well I hope that rotten scum keels over dead when he hears!"

"He _is_ dead ya moron!"

"Yeah, well I wish he wasn't so I could do the honors!"

"I agree. I can be rotten to some folk, but it ain't polite to be mean to the ladies."

"What about Christina? And Judy? And Marabel? And Elizabeth? And –"

"Alright, alright, but that was just stealin'. I could never do what he did."

"Yeah", the others agreed.

"That ghost is the most sinister, fowl thing that ever got permission to live on this planet!"

"Hey! Don't talk about my father that way!" Emily burst in suddenly.

"Uh, Emily!" said one, putting a hand over her mouth, "Eway avehay ompanycay!"

"Oh it's alright", said Scarlet, "I already know about all that."

"WHAT?!" he shouted, releasing Emily.

"That's right, and I told her", said Emily.

"Kid! What are ya thinkin'? Ya just threw your life-death-whatever, down the drain!"

"Sorry mortal", said one, "but we're gonna have to do away with you."

"Yeah, ya seemed nice too. Oh well."

"We just can't have people walkin' around havin' that kind of information."

"You understand."

"Hey, hey wait!" shouted Emily. "You can't kill her! She's my best friend! She won't tell anyone!"

"That true mortal?"

"This means _no one_, got it? _**No one**_."

"Ya gotta understand how important this is."

"Oh, don't worry! I won't tell anyone! Honestly! I'll take it to the grave!"

"Yeah, well what about after that? Ya still won't tell anyone?"

"No! Of course not!"

"Phew!" sighed Emily. "Enough of all this! Scarlet, these are my uncles I was telling you about. Gus Gracey", she said, pointing to a short prisoner with a long beard and a ball and chain around one foot. "Phineas Queeg", she said, pointing to the second one, who was fat, was in a large green coat and tall hat, and had a large carpetbag in one hand, "and Ezra Dobbins", she said, pointing to the last one, who was a skeletal ghost and wearing a small hat. "And this", she said pointing to Scarlet, "is Scarlet. She's my new best friend."

"What? You mean we're not good enough for you anymore?" asked Ezra.

"And after all we've done for her", sighed Phineas.

"It's so sad", said Gus.

"Oh, you guys!" laughed Emily.

"Awe, were just teasin' ya Emily."

"Yeah. We're glad you made a friend."

"Even if she is a mortal."

"Who cares if I'm a mortal? I'm still human aren't I?" complained Scarlet.

"Yeah, that's all right mort – er, um, Charlotte."

"Scarlet."

"Yeesh, ya can't even remember her name for ten minuets."

"Hey, I was close enough!"

"Alright alright! Enough already!"

But the ghosts just kept right on arguing amongst themselves.

"Come on", whispered Emily, "let's go."

The two girls tiptoed down the hallway with the mirrors, but the hitchhiking ghosts weren't so easily fooled.

"Hey! Where ya going?" cried Phineas, popping up in a mirror.

"I'm going to show her stuff", said Emily.

"Well alright", said Ezra, popping up in another mirror.

"Bye, kid! And uh, Sarah", said Gus, popping up in yet another mirror.

"Scarlet!" cried Scarlet and Emily.

As they neared the end of the hall, they noticed that the light got darker. It was almost pitch black, except for a strange glow above them in the right corner.

There was a little person! She was only twelve inches tall and was dressed in a billowing white gown with black lace down the front. She had long dark brown hair, and looked strangely familiar.

As they neared her she began to call to them, "Hurry back! Hurry back! Be sure to bring your death certificate if you decided to join us. Make final arrangements now. We've been _dying _to have you."

"Hey!" Scarlet called to her. "I want to stay! Can I make arrangements? Please? Hello?"

But the strange lady ignored her and kept right on repeating herself.

"Don't listen to her", whispered Emily. "That's Little Leota, Madam Leota's daughter. She isn't very cooperative. I don't like her too much."

"Well, ok", sighed Scarlet. "What happened to her anyway? How come she's so small?"

"She drowned in the river. By the time they found her body, it had shrunk to that size. And you know what?"

"What?" asked Scarlet.

"She died because she slipped off a branch overlooking the river. And she was on that branch in the first place because she was watching these guys sink in quicksand. She had lured them to their deaths, and she was proud of it. She's almost as bad as her mother."

"Are the guys the same guys as in the stretching room?'

"Yep."

Suddenly, weird haunting music came floating down from somewhere.

"If you would like to join our jamboree

There's a simple rule that's compulsory

Mortals pay a token fee

Rest in peace! The haunting's free

So hurry back, we would like your company."

"Nice music", whispered Scarlet.

"Yeah."


	23. The Outdoor Path

Chapter 23

The Outdoor Path

They went through a door and were in an outdoor path.

That little crying boy that Scarlet saw when she first came to the mansion was there again!

"Who is he?" whispered Scarlet.

"That's Timmy. He's one of the most recent ghosts here. He's scared. That's why he's always crying."

"How'd he die?"

"Well, I don't know exactly, but I know that his mother had him cremated when he died. Then she dumped his ashes all over the house."

"What? Why?"

"Because he loved this house and was always talking about it. She thought this was where he wanted to be."

"I guess she thought wrong", said Scarlet, as Timmy disappeared again.

"Go slow, there's something you have to see at the end", said Emily. They walked along until Emily said, "Wait! Stop!" and pointed down. "That's her ring."

Scarlet kneeled down to look. She was right! There was the ghost bride's wedding ring, implanted into the stone.

It was quite small, as though it could fit a child's finger, which made sense, since the bride was only sixteen. The band was rusted, and the stone was black, but you could see that it used to be beautiful.

Scarlet tried to pick it out, but it was stuck tight.

"Hey, do you want to meet her?" asked Emily.

"Who?" questioned Scarlet.

"My mother, Emily."

"WHAT? Uh, thanks, but I think I'd better not. I mean, no offense, but she, uh, well I don't think she'd like me too much."

"Oh, well, don't worry. I won't let her push you. She'll listen to me. Probably."

"Well, ok, but if anything happens –"

"Don't worry! It won't!"

They passed a crypt with the names of its inhabitants carved on one side. The names included Hal Lusinashun, Bea Witch, Hap. A. Rition, Manny Festation, Metta Fiskis, Claire Voince, Wee G. Board, I. Emma Spook, Paul Tergyst, C. U. Later, Dustin T. Dust, Asher T. Ashes, M. T. Tomb, Hale N. Hardy, I. M. Ready, Love U. Trudy, I. Trudy Dew, Pearl E. Gates, Theo Later, Rustin Peece, U. R. Gone, Ray N. Carnation, Lev Itation, G. I. Miss You, I. Trudy Departed, I. L. Beback, Emma Goner, and Rusty Gates. On the top of the crypt it said "In Spiritual Repose".

Then they passed a pet cemetery with the pets that had lived and died in the mansion over the years. The inscriptions on the stones read, "Freddie the Bat, 1847 We'll Miss You", "Old Flybait He Croaked August 9, 1869", which was the grave of a frog, "Rosie, She was a poor little pig, but she bought the farm 1849", "Buddy, our friend until the end", which was the grave of a dog, "Beloved Lilac, Long on Curiosity… Short on Common Scents 1847", which was the grave of a skunk, "In Memory of My Rat Whom I Loved, Now He Resides In the Realms Up Above", "Here lies Long Legged Jeb, Got tangled up in his very own web", which was the grave of a spider, and "Here lies my snake who's fatal mistake was frightening the gardener who carried a rake." There was also a cat grave marker, surrounded by mice gravestones, a duck grave marker, a rabbit grave marker, a poodle that said "Fi Fi", and a fish that said "October 10, 1867", and an eagle that said "July 11, 1864. All of the stones were in the shape of whatever animal lay beneath them.

Next they passed a crypt of "Bluebeard", and his seven wives. It read: "1440, Bluebeard, Here Lyeth his Loving Wives, Penelope died 1434, Abigail died 1435, Anastasia died 1436, Prudence died 1437, Phoebe died 1438, Eugenia died 1439, Lucretia. Seven winsome wives, some fat, some thin, six of them were faithful, but the seventh did him in".

"She killed him, I suppose?" asked Scarlet.

"What do you mean, 'I suppose'?"

"Well, it seems that over here everyone goes around killing everyone else."

"Sadly, more or less. Oh, this place is important."

They were now at a little side cemetery, with only thirteen graves. Scarlet walked along reading them. They said, "Here Lies Dear Departed Dave, He Chased A Bear Into A Cave.", "In Memory Of Our Patriarch, Dear Departed Grandpa Marc.", "Requiescat Francis Xavier, No Time Off For Good Behavior, R.I.P", "Here Lies A Man Named Martin, The Lights Went Out On This Old Spartan.", "Rest in Peace Brother Gordon, Now You've Crossed The River Jordan.", "Rest in Peace Cousin Huet, We All Know You Didn't Do It.", "In Memoriam Uncle Myall, Here You'll Lay For Quite A While.", "Here Lies Good old Fred, A Great Big Rock Fell On His Head.", "Rest In Peace Mr. Sewell, The Victim Of A Dirty Duel.", and "At Peaceful R  
est Lies Brother Claude, Planted Here Beneath This Sod."

Then there were the three significant ones that Emily had pointed out.

"That one", she said, pointing to a stone that said, "Master Gracey Laid To Rest, No Mourning Please At His Request, Farewell", "belongs to my father."

"How come the dirt is still fresh, like he was just buried?" asked Scarlet.

"Madam Leota does it. She thinks it makes it look more 'important'. Speaking of Madam Leota", she said, pointing to a stone that said "Dear Sweet Leota, Beloved By All, In Regions Beyond Now, But Having A Ball." "George wrote that description. Isn't it sickening?"

"You are not beloved by all!" Scarlet shouted at the stone, "And you're not sweet, and you're not dear, and you're not in regions beyond! You're stuck in a crystal ball! And do you know why? Because Master Gracey knew that you killed Emily, and he loved her enough to do something about it! He doesn't love you, he loves her, and you know it!"

Suddenly, the face on the stone blinked! It's head moved in and out of the stone, and it stared at them with hard cold eyes.

"Uh oh", whispered Scarlet, "maybe I shouldn't have said so much."

"No, don't worry", said Emily, "It's just another one of Leota's enchantments. You didn't 'set it off' or anything."

The last stone had no inscription, but it was obviously the stone of Little Leota. It was a statue of her and was just the size and shape of her.


	24. The Ghost Bride

Chapter 24

The Ghost Bride

They finally entered the mansion this time taking a little side door that was built into a cliff.

As they entered Emily asked, "Did you really mean that?"

"Mean what?" inquired Scarlet.

"You know, about Master Gracey really still loving Emily?"

"Well, I don't know. I'm sure it's possible. After all, you said so yourself, they were very much in love. He can't have forgotten about her completely. You saw how he acted when I said the name "Emily". Besides, how much can someone love a head?"

"Hard to imagine, isn't it? But speaking of Emily, are you ready to go meet her?"

"Not really", sighed Scarlet, "but I suppose I'll have to eventually. Let's just get it over with."

When they entered the attic, Emily went first to make sure that "nothing happened".

M  
eanwhile, Scarlet was confronted once again by Dracula and his wife.

"Ah, vere you are!" cried Dracula.

"Did you vind a vortal?" asked his wife.

"Yes, as a matter of fact I did. Only I'm not sure he should be your victim, he's mad enough at me already."

"Vell, it is eiver him or your vamily. You decide."

"Wait! Don't jump to any conclusions!" cried Scarlet, "I already found you a replacement. You can have his dog."

"A dovg? Dearv, have you ever had a dovg?"

"Vhy no, but it sounds delivcious. I say ve give it a trvy."

"Ovkay, you've got yourvself a deal", said Dracula, extending his hand to Scarlet.

"Thank you _very _much", said Scarlet. "By the way, where'd my family go? Isn't this where I left them?"

"Vell, your mother avoke, and she and your vather vent dovnstairs, but I donv't knov vere they are nov."

"Thank you, thank you!" said Scarlet, just as Emily came up to her.

"Ok, I'm pretty sure it's all clear."

"Pretty sure? Emily, this is a life or death matter, you have to be more than _pretty _sure."

"Well there's really no telling with her! If she tries anything, just jump out of the way!"

"Ok ok, fine."

They slowly walked in front of the ghost bride.

She somehow didn't seem as scary, once you knew the story behind her. Now Scarlet felt sorry for her. Sorry that she had to stand there for all eternity being taunted by the words she never got to say, the song she never got to hear.

"Mother", said Emily, speaking slowly and deliberately, "this is Scarlet. Scarlet, this is my mother, Emily."

Suddenly the ghost bride raised out her hand! Scarlet jumped back, but then she realized that she only wanted to shake her hand.

Scarlet slowly stepped in front of the bride, and grabbed her hand. It felt cold and unreal, but it was as real as real could get.

Scarlet slowly shook her hand and said, "H-how do you do?"

The bride murmured something, but it was too hard to make out. As Scarlet looked up, she saw that her glowing yellow eyes stared right over her, and she could tell that the ghost bride was completely in another world, and had no idea what was going on.

Emily sighed. "Well, goodbye mother. I'll visit you again sometime."

The bride murmured something that sounded vaguely like "chopsticks", and Emily turned to go.

"Wait!" cried Scarlet, "What's that?"

She pointed to a painting that was hanging on the wall to the left of the bride, partly hidden by a small, white, marble column.

"Oh that", said Emily, "that's a painting my uncles gave to me for my seventy forth deathday." When Scarlet looked at her confused she said, "Deathday. It's like a birthday, only it celebrates the day that you died. They painted a picture of my mother and I, if we weren't dead."

Scarlet looked at the picture. It was of a pretty girl with long blond hair tied up in curls, with a pink ruffly dress on. Bending over her was her mother, with her blond hair tied up in a bun on the top of her head. She was wearing a light blue gown, with white lace trim. The two figures seemed to be in some sort of a nursery.

"It's beautiful", said Scarlet.

"Yeah, isn't it? My mother likes it, so I let her keep it there."

They stared at the painting for a couple seconds, and then Emily said, "Come on. Let's go."


	25. The Second Encounter

Chapter 25

The Second Encounter

They walked around for awhile, when all of a sudden a voice said, "Well! You certainly have a way of popping up unexpectedly!"

"I could say the same for you", Scarlet said to the ghost host.

"Well, it's lucky I ran into you. Do you realize that it's 11:50p.m.?"

"Um…", said Scarlet looking at her watch, "yeah, so?"

"It's only ten minuets till midnight!" bellowed the ghost host. "And", he said quieter, "you don't want to be walking around after midnight."

"Why?" quizzed Scarlet.

"Because that's when your coach turns back into a pumpkin, I DON"T KNOW! That's just the rules! Don't you ever read ghost stories?"

"Of course I read ghost stories! 24-7! How do you think I know all I know? I must have read every ghost book there is!"

"I doubt that highly. Do you know how many ghost stories there are?"

"Uh…"

"An infinite number. And we have every one."

"Huh? How can you –"

"We do."

"Alright, but is there any one specific reason why we can't be out at midnight?"

"Uh…it's past your bedtime?"

"Alright, you win. But where do I sleep?"

"I will show you to your room. Do you have a place to stay?" he said, addressing Emily.

Emily opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

"Say something!" hissed Scarlet.

"N-n-no!" stuttered Emily, while she nodded her head.

"Well, yes or no, which is it?"

"N-no! No!" shouted Emily.

"Well alright, you don't have to shout! You can stay with Scarlet. Alright?"

But Emily had had enough, and refused to say anymore.

"She means yes", said Scarlet.

"Very well then", said the ghost host, "follow me."

"How?" asked Scarlet, "It's not like we can see you!"

Suddenly she saw a door open, and a picture get a little crooked on the wall.

"I guess that's how", said Scarlet. "Come on Emily. Emily?"

Emily was standing behind her, looking like she had just found out that Christmas was tomorrow.

"D-did you see that?" she squeaked. "I talked to him! I _talked _to him!"

"Yeah, aren't you special. You just said no!"

"I said no!" shouted Emily. "I'm the queen of saying no! No no no no, no no no no, n-n-n-n-n-no, NO!"

"Alright alright! How bout next time you say a little more? Maybe a whole sentence!"

"No _is_ a whole sentence!" exclaimed Emily.

Suddenly they both burst out laughing.

"Are you coming or not?" bellowed the ghost host from somewhere down the hallway.

"Coming!" called Scarlet. "Coming?" she said to Emily.

"Coming", whispered Emily, as she followed her down the hall.


	26. The Bedroom

Chapter 26

The Bedroom

It turned out that their room was in the hallway of haunted, breathing doors. Their room was one of the "unoccupied" ones. They stepped inside.

"Pleasant dreams!" cried the ghost host, as the door slammed shut.

Scarlet looked around the room. It was perfectly square and made entirely of wood. It had no windows, and two doors. One door was the door that they had come in. The other was a set of folding doors with blinds, the kind that is often seen in hotel rooms. It opened into a huge walk-in closet that was also made out of wood and was completely empty except for a few piles of cloth on the floor. The bed was wooden and square with a ratty old blanket and a flat lifeless pillow. To the left of the bed was a small, rickety, wooden nightstand on which sat a small oil lamp that left just enough light for them to somewhat see.

"Well, I guess that's that. Goodnight, Emily!" said Scarlet, who really was dead tired.

"Goodnight", said Emily.


	27. The Dolls

Chapter 27

The Dolls

After passing a surprisingly uneventful night (except, of course, for the many moans, creaks, and shrieks), Emily awoke to find Scarlet still asleep. She leaned over her and gently shook her shoulder.

Scarlet slowly yawned and opened her eyes.

"BOO!" shouted Emily.

"Ahh!" cried Scarlet sitting up. "Hey!" she said, when she saw who it was.

"Ha ha! Gotch ya!" laughed Emily.

"Oh yeah, _very _funny", mocked Scarlet, tossing her pillow at Emily, which went right threw her, making the girls laugh even harder.

"Come on", said Emily, "let's play Julia and Martha Ann."

"Who?" asked Scarlet.

"My dolls!" said Emily, holding up the dolls that Scarlet had seen the first time she had met Emily, "My uncles gave them to me for Christmas one year."

"Neat!" exclaimed Scarlet, "Let's play!"


	28. The Normal Life

Chapter 28

The ''Normal'' Life

That was the way that things went for a couple weeks.

Scarlet and Emily were always together, mostly playing in their room, but sometimes going down to visit Emily's uncles or mother.

Emily even started to talk to the ghost host, who in turn started to treat her almost like a daughter, which, ironically enough, she really was.


	29. The Cats

Chapter 29

The Cats

One day, Scarlet got a farfetched idea that she decided to share with Emily.

As much as she hated dogs, Scarlet had always loved cats. However, she could never have one because her mother was allergic to them. But after seeing Felicia's ghost cats, Flatsy and Liney, Scarlet had started to wonder if a ghost cat couldn't be just as good, maybe better, since they didn't shed.

"Hey Emily", asked Scarlet, "are there any ghost cats here?"

"Oh sure! Tons of them! I think. Well, I know there's at least one. It's my mother's. It's black. It hangs around her because it likes her candle."

"Her candle?"

"Don't ask. You saw its gravestone in the pet cemetery."

"Oh, you mean with all the little mice"  
"Yep. Come on. Let's search the mansion for cats. I bet there's lots!"

"Yippee! Cats, CATS, **CATS**!!"

The first place they went was to get the bride's cat.

It was no wonder Scarlet hadn't seen it before because it blended in so perfectly with the pitch darkness around them.

The bride didn't mind letting them borrow it, at least it seemed that way. It was hard to really tell _what _she was thinking."

"Hey Emily" asked Scarlet, "what's that", she said, pointing to a green wicker baby carriage that stood across from the bride.

"You know, I'm not sure, but it's probably mine. Or it was anyway. But it could be someone else's. Who knows? There's 999 ghosts here. I bet that some of them are babies."

The next place they looked was in the graveyard since it was right down the tree.

When they got to the bottom of the tree, Scarlet whispered, "Be careful. There's a maniac caretaker and his evil dog around here somewhere."

Just then, they saw him near the gate.

"You!" cried the caretaker, shaking his fist as Scarlet. "How dare you ever show your face to me again! Not after what you did to poor Skinny!"

"Oh, you mean the vampires? Well don't blame me, they're the ones who did it. And actually, you should be thankful. I saved you, and got a horrible creature attacked at the same time."

"Oh, saved me did you?" he said, pointing to two small tooth holes in the side of his neck.

"The vampires got you too? Well I'm sorry, I didn't mean –"

"Not them", interrupted the caretaker, "Skinny! He went mad! But he's back to normal now."

"Does that mean that he's a vampire?"

"Naw, doesn't work on dogs."

"Speaking of which, where is he? Did he die?" asked Scarlet hopefully.

"No, but just about", he said, bringing him out from behind him, where he had been hiding.

"Oh no", whimpered Scarlet, "not again!"

"MEOW!" shrieked the black cat Scarlet was holding, as it started charging at the dog. The evil dog fainted dead away.

"Good kitty!" exclaimed Scarlet, as she scooped it back up into her arms.

"Are you the crazy caretaker?" asked Emily, stepping out of the shadows.

"A ghost!" whimpered the caretaker before he fainted beside his dog.

"Was it something I said?" asked Emily.

"Nah, he just doesn't like ghosts."

"What a weirdo."

They went into the graveyard where they were immediately greeted by the "Grim Grinning Ghosts" song.

"Meow mew mew meow meow meow meow –"

"Hoot hoot hoot, hoot hoot hoot hoot hoot –"  
"Meow meow meow –"

"Of course! The singing cats!" laughed Scarlet.

"And owls."

They walked along, until they found the three orange kitties.

"Why, they're young enough to be kittens!" said Scarlet. "Here kitties kitties kitties!" she called.

The three orange kittens came right over.

"Hooray! More cats!"

Next they decided to try the ballroom.

"Whoa!" cried Scarlet, as a ghost couple danced right through her, "Why don't they watch where they're going?"

"They can't", said Emily, "they're another work of the evil Madam Leota."

"Oh no. What happened to them?"

"See that lady over there?" asked Emily, pointing to the lady blowing out the pink birthday candles.

"Yeah?"

"Well, her name is Victoria Abigail Boufont, and she –"

"Victoria! That's right! I remember Madam Leota saying something about her. Saying that Dude should go hang out with her since they both enjoy annoying her so much."

"Dude?"

"Don't ask."

"Ok, well Victoria did annoy Madam Leota, but she didn't mean to. See, she loved to party, in fact she threw a party almost every night. Well, Madam Leota hated it because they always interupted her séances, since they were right next to the séance room. Anyway, she got so mad that one day she stormed onto the balcony and said that all the dancers would be doomed to dance for all eternity. So that's what happened. They only lasted about a day or two, because they died of exhaustion, but now their ghosts are doomed to dance for all eternity."

"Wow. I guess Madam Leota got what she wanted."

"Nope. Nothing would stop Victoria. She still kept on having parties every night. Well, one day, on her birthday, she was having a _humongous _party that was _really _noisy. Madam Leota was in the middle of "something" important and got so mad that she screamed, "Thirteen years from today you will die!""

"Goodness! She certainly has a temper, doesn't she?"

"Yep. Well Victoria didn't take Madam Leota seriously, in fact she held a noisy party every year on that day, just so she could annoy Madam Leota."

"Ha! Serves her right!"

"Yeah. _Definitely_. Anyway, thirteen years later, after her party, she went to bed and died peacefully in her sleep. That was the only time that Madam Leota ever let any of her victims die peacefully, but I think it was because she just forgot about the curse."

"Mew mew mew mew!" cried a tiny little voice.

Then they saw a little, tiny, orange kitten with black stripes running in and out of the dancer's feet, trying not to get trampled!

"Kitty!" cried Scarlet, scooping him up. "Oh you poor little thing. Where'd you come from?"

"Mew!" he cried.

"I've never seen him before. I wonder where he came from?"

"Who cares, let's keep him!"

They now had five cats following them randomly wherever they went.

They searched the rest of the mansion, but couldn't find any other cats.

"I think we found them all", said Emily.

"Oh no we haven't! There's still two more."

"Where?"

"In the witch's hut. Come on!"

They slowly went into the room.

"Hello? Is anybody here?"

Suddenly, in a puff of smoke, out popped Felicia.

"Who dares to! – oh, it's you. Is your mother here?"

"No."

"Good. Is your brother here?"

"No."

"Drat. I still need a little brain for my potion."

"What are you trying to make?"

"Milk."

"Milk?"

"For Kitty."

"Why do you need to _make _milk?"

"Well, it's not like we can go out and buy it!"

"Oh yeah. Anyway, I was wondering, could I borrow your cats?"

"You mean Flatsy and Liney?"

"Yeah. See, I'm collecting cats", she said, pointing to the cats behind her.

"Well, I don't know. Kitty doesn't like anyone to play with them. Remember, she thinks they're her babies."

"Oh, we'll be really good to them! I love cats! I wouldn't let anything happen to them. Actually, I don't think anything could happen to them, since they're ghosts. But I'll protect them anyway!"

"Well, ok but –"

"MEOW!" shrieked Kitty, suddenly jumping up from behind the caldron, where she had been hiding.

"I mean, of course not!"

"Purrrrr", purred Kitty, obviously content once again.

"Please?" begged Scarlet, this time addressing Kitty. "I promise I'll be good to them. It can be like a sleep over! Please?"

"Meow", said Kitty, as she picked up Flatsy and Liney by the scruffs of their necks, and laid them by Scarlet's feet.

"Oh thank you!" cried Scarlet, "Come on Emily!"

They went around playing with the seven cats for the rest of the day.


	30. Baby Secile

Chapter 30

Baby Secile

When darkness fell and they were about to go to bed, Emily said, "Scarlet, do you mind sleeping alone tonight? There's this party I have to go to, uh, no mortals allowed. You know how it is. It's probably just someone's deathday party, you know, someone who hasn't gotten used to the idea of mortals. So is that ok?"

"Of course! You go have fun. Besides, I have the cats to keep me company."

"Ok, thanks. I wouldn't go if I didn't have to. Most of the parties are for old people anyway, who just sit around talking. Once in awhile there's a good one, but I doubt it."

"Oh well. Your uncles will probably be there."

"No. They won't go anywhere near Master Gracey. They still hate him."

"Maybe they'll come to their senses one of these days."

"Doubtfully. Anyway, I have to get going. I can't be late."

"Alright. Bye!"

Scarlet finally drifted off to sleep, which was hard because of all the noise. But suddenly, around two in the morning, she was awakened by a strange sound that sounded like a person crying.

"Oh, what is it?" said Scarlet sitting up.

No one was there, yet the crying sound still continued. Suddenly, she saw a faint greenish-blue glow coming from the cracks in her closet door.

"Oh is that where you are", said Scarlet, as she got up and slowly walked to her closet. "I hope whoever it is is alright", thought Scarlet, as she opened her closet doors.

But the closet was empty. The glow and crying continued, but it was empty!

"That's weird", whispered Scarlet.

She looked around trying to find the source of everything. Suddenly, she found a small bundle of cloth, and she knelt beside it.

"What in the wor- A baby!" she exclaimed, as she lifted the cloth. "Wow!"

She picked up the baby, and carried it to her bed.

It was obviously a girl because it's shirt, blanket, and small bow were all pink. For a ghost, she looked absolutely normal, except for the fact that she was transparent and glowing.

Scarlet picked up the baby, and it slowly stopped crying. As it stopped, so did the glow.

"What on earth are you doing here?" asked Scarlet. The baby looked at her. "Well, that's ok, I'll find your Mommy, or whatever takes care of you."

Suddenly, Emily burst in and collapsed on the bed.

"What a party!" she laughed. "It's to bad you couldn't be there. It was Victoria's party, and boy does she know how to party. And then we could hear Madam Leota screaming from the séance room, so I told her to shut up, or I'd go in there and break her crystal ball. That shut her up alright. She'll die, or disappear, or something if it breaks. Hey, what are you doing with the unwanted one?"

"You said that to Madam Leota? Oh Emily, good for you! What's an unwanted one?"

"Not _an _unwanted one _the_ unwanted one!"

"Ok fine, but what is it?"

"Her", said Emily, pointing to the baby, "she's the unwanted one."

"Is she unwanted?"

"Yep."

"You mean she doesn't have any family?"

"Nope."

"Well, why doesn't anyone adopt her or something?"

"Cause she's unwanted."

"But _WHY_?!"

"Oh. I don't know. I never thought of that. She's strange. No one knows who she is or where she came from or anything. She just randomly appeared one day. Everyone's to busy to care, so she just got nicknamed the unwanted one."

"Well that's not very nice! She's just a poor baby! And look! She's perfect! She has no signs of death!"

"Yeah, but see, most ghosts like signs of death."

"Oh brother. Well that's no excuse for no one wanting her."

"It's not like we can do anything about it."

"Oh yes we can! If no one wants her, then _I'll _keep her!"

"How? You're only twelve!"

"So? I can still take care of her."

"You really want to keep the unwanted one?"

"Yes I do. And her name isn't the unwanted one, it's Baby Secile."

"Says who?"

"No one. That's just her name."

"Huh?"

"One of my psychic things."

"Oh. That makes sense then."

Baby Secile stared up at Emily.

"Besides", laughed Emily, "she's pretty cute!"

Now there was a very unusual parade that walked through the mansion. There was a mortal girl with a ghost baby in her arms, a ghost girl beside her, and seven cats walking randomly behind them.

Baby Secile wasn't Scarlet's "daughter" and Scarlet wasn't her "mother". It was more of a "pet" and "owner" situation. It was a "baby" and her "guardian".


	31. MT Tomb

Chapter 31

M.T. Tomb

One day, Scarlet said, "Hey Emily, you know what? I've lived in this mansion for about a month now, and I still hardly know anyone! I mean, I'm sharing my home with 999 other people, and I've never even seen a quarter of them! I've never even been in all the rooms in my own house!"

"Alright, alright! I know! I'll take you to the basement. It's bound to have lots of ghosts, plus you've never been there."

"Basement? Awesome!"

The parade slowly crept down the cellar stairs to the basement. When they got there it was pitch black, dead quiet, and very empty.

"Where is everybody?" whispered Scarlet.

"Oh, didn't I tell you? It's kind of a basement/crypt thing."

"Explain?"

"See all the walls?" said Emily, pointing to all the barren cement walls around them, "Well underneath each section is a coffin, and in each coffin is most likely a ghost."

"How many crypts does this place have?"

"Probably too many to count. Anyway, want to open one?"

"Yeah, of course! But how?"

"Uh…I have no idea. You think of something."

"Well I don't know! I can't break through cement with my bare hands!"

"Meow!" mewed one of the cats from a far dark corner of the room.

"Kitty?" called Scarlet. No one answered. "Come on", she said to Emily, as they stumbled in the darkness after the cat.

"There you are!" exclaimed Scarlet when they had found the orange kitty.

"Meow!" cried the cat, pawing at something.

"What is it kitty? What'cha find? Emily! You've got to see this!"

There in the wall was a coffin. You could see the pieces of cement on the floor where someone had broken in, but you could see no person to have done the deed.

"Well, looks like someone did our work for us", said Emily, "Care to do the honors?"

"Yeah, I guess. Here, hold Secile."

Scarlet grasped the lid of the coffin and tugged. It slid open rather easily for something that seemed so heavily guarded.

"Someone's been here before", Scarlet thought, as she stared at the skeleton within.

Suddenly the skeleton began to move! Baby Secile began to cry.

"Here, you take her", said Emily, handing her back to Scarlet.

"Ahhh", said the skeleton, "Nothing like a nice long nap. Whoa mortal person! Uhh…boo!"

"Hi!" said Scarlet extending her hand. "I'm Scarlet, and this is Emily, Secile, Tiger, Flatsy, Liney, Orange, Tangerine, Pumpkin, and Midnight. Who are you?"

"Uh…", said the skeleton, shaking her hand, "I'm a terrifying phantom! See and be terrified of…uh…my bony bones!"

"Sorry, ghosts don't scare me. I know that they're really very nice. Well, _most _of them anyway", she added, thinking of Madam Leota.

"Oh…uh…I'm…uh…M. T. Tomb."

"_You're_ M. T. Tomb?"

"Yep."

"But I thought your crypt was outside? I remember reading your name. With I. Emma Spook and Paul Tergyst, and all the rest of them."

"Yeah, that's what they want you to think. But I moved here for safekeeping. That other tomb is empty."

"Safe keeping? For what M. T. Tomb?"

"Please, call me M. T."

"Alright M. T. What does that stand for anyway?"

"We do not need bothersome names to get in the way. Abbreviations will do. All we need in this world is the sand, sun, and big wide ocean."

"Uh, sorry to disappoint you, but your not going to find any of that here. Trust me."

"As long as I got it up here and in here", he said, pointing to his skull, and where his heart would have been, "I am perfectly content."

"Uh…right. So what was that you said about being in "safe keeping"?"

"Oh. I had the most beautiful necklace. Built only from the finest seashells, you know. In each and every shell I could hear the sound of the crashing waves of the ocean as they break onto the sand. I could –"

"Are you a beach bum?" asked Emily suddenly.

"I prefer to think of myself as a groovy oceanographer with an extremely high love for Mother Nature's greatest gift."

"So you're a beach bum?"

"Well…yeah if you want to put it in simpler terms."

"So tell us more about your necklace M. T."

"Oh yeah. Well, my precious little baby was my most prized possession."

At hearing the word "baby", Secile opened her eyes wide and looked around.

"I would do anything for my precious necklace. It's my communicator to the greatest wonder of the world. That's why I couldn't take the risk of anyone stealing my awesome gem."

"So you imprisoned yourself in a wall? Isn't that taking things just a _little_ too far?"

"Nah. Nothing is too great for my connection to home."

"So what happened to it?"

"Oh that stupid I. L. Beback!"

"Another beach bum?"

"Yes, and my arch nemesis. He was always jealous of my precious, always trying to steal it. That's why I had to hide. But it didn't matter! He came back for it! He came in with a sledgehammer, and broke right in here!"

"So he took it?"

"Yes. He took my preccciousss."

"Have you ever heard of The Lord of the Rings?"

"Dude, I'm talking about a necklace, not a ring!"

"Never mind. And I'm no dude."

"Oh, my mistake. Dudette?"

"Much better. So what became of I. L. Beback?"

"Ha! I frightened him to death! He wasn't expecting a talking skeleton. When he was discovered, no one knew who he was, so they just put him in a random tomb. Then, years later, someone found his name, so they carved it on there. But he still has MY NECKLACE!"

"Well I'm terribly sorry about that."

"Oh, you non-groovy oceanographers just don't understand."

"Hey, do you mind if I ask you something?" asked Scarlet.

"Shoot."

"How come you're a skeleton? I mean, I've seen skeletal ghosts, but I've never seen an actual _skeleton _ghost."

"Oh that's easy", said Emily, answering for him, "we can all do that. Watch."

Then she, the cats, and even Baby Secile turned into skeletons.

"Ahh!" cried Scarlet, looking at Baby Secile in her arms, "I'm surrounded!"

"Just showing you", said Emily, as she and everyone, except for M. T. Tomb of course, turned back into "regular" ghosts.

"Well, it was _very_ nice meeting you M. T., but I'm afraid that we'll have to be going now."

"Oh…what? Uh…yeah. Yo, later dude…uh…ets."

"Later!" laughed Scarlet and Emily as they hurried back up the steps.

"Oh, and I'll keep my eye out for your necklace too!" Scarlet called back.

"Righteous!"


	32. Moving

Chapter 32

Moving

Life went on for a couple more weeks being as normal as normal could get when you were living in a haunted mansion, until one day disaster struck!  
"Scarlet!" called Noelle, "Come here! I need to talk to you!"

"Yeah?" asked Scarlet when she arrived in the kitchen.

The kitchen was probably the second largest room in the house, next to the ballroom. It was stark white with big old fashioned metal "appliances", cauldrons, wood stoves, and wash basins.

The walls, ceiling, and floor were all the same shocking shade of white. It was almost impossible to see where the floor ended and the wall began, causing you to bump into a lot of walls if you weren't careful.

The room seemed vast and empty and gave you a feeling of floating and being alone in the universe. This is where Noelle spent most of her time cooking, cleaning, and washing.

"Scarlet, have you seen your brothers lately?"

"Um…no, I don't think so."

"Do you know why?"

"Cause…I'm always with Emily, and Baby Secile, and Midnight, and Pumpkin, and Liney, and –"

"No, it's because they're both in their rooms, too petrified to move!"

"Well –"

"Charley refuses to leave his room, and poor Bobby just sits on his bed and stares at the wall! He'll eat only if I feed him, and he'll very rarely sleep. He still hasn't gotten over his faint!"

"Well, if you ask me, it's better than being the terror he usually is!"

"Don't be mean! This is serious! We have to take drastic measures!"

"Well I guess I could introduce them to some of my friends and show them that they aren't scary so –"

"We have to move!"

"So that they won't be stuck in their room all the time – we **WHAT**????!!!!"

"We have to move! It's the only way! I can't let your brothers just sit there wasting their lives away because of where we live! As their mother I have the right to –"

"We **WHAT**?????!!!!!"

"Move. I have the right to ensure my children a healthy lifestyle so that –"

"We **WHAT**??????!!!!!!"

"Are you even listening to me? We have to make sure that your brothers –"

"We **WHAT**???????!!!!!!!"

"WE ARE MOVING! NOW STOP SAYING THAT!"

"No."

"Yes we are."

"No."

"Yes!"

"No."

"Yes we are! As your mother I get to decide where we live."

"No."

"Yes I do."

"No. You don't get it. We're not moving."

"Yes we are! I just said that!"

"No, you don't understand. We're not moving. We can't _move_. I mean, are you crazy or something?"

"Yes, I know you like it here, but you know, it isn't good for you to spend all of your time with dead people. It's not healthy."

"It's not their fault they're dead!"

"Yes, yes, but why can't you get some real friends?"

"Real? What do you mean "real"? My friends are as real as real can get. They're the best friends I've ever had, and you can't take that away from me."

"Well, you'll make new friends –"

"Not like these. These are my friends. Any others won't be real."

"Oh stop it! You sound like a mental case!"

"No, but I might if you take my world away from me!"

"Don't be silly. We're moving, and that's final."

"NO WE'RE NOT!" Scarlet screamed, as she ran from the kitchen.

Noelle went back to chopping some tomatoes for dinner.


	33. Adoption?

Chapter 33

Adoption?

Scarlet stormed around the mansion. She didn't know where she was going or why, she was just randomly running. Then she started screaming. She screamed at random times, and then screamed again. She ran into some rooms and halls that she had never even seen before, but she didn't stop to look at them. She just kept running.

"You know, we're beginning to get used to you mortals, but keep that up and someone might lose their temper! And believe me, you don't want that to happen."

Scarlet just kept running.

"Hey slow down! What's the matter anyway?" asked the ghost host.

"We're moving!" choked Scarlet. "We're moving, and there's nothing I can do about it!"

She started to cry. She couldn't help it. Her whole world was crashing around her, and it was about to smash her.

"Moving? What do you mean, moving? There, there, don't cry. Where are you moving?"

"I- I don't know! Somewhere that's not here!"

"You mean, out of the mansion?"

Scarlet slowly nodded.

"Well, you can't! I mean, this is where you live! This is your home! I mean…you can't!"

"I know", sniffed Scarlet, "but just try explaining that to my Mommy. She's mad because my brothers are to scared to do anything. Well that's not my fault! I can't help it if they're scared! If they'd just give you guys a chance!"

"Well you can't go!"

"Well, how can anyone stop it?"

"I don't know, but you can't!"

"Why?"

"Because…oh I hate situations like this, where someone backs you into a corner, and you don't know what to do, and you're so clueless and desperate that you actually tell the truth, but then you regret it later…"

"Huh?"

"Oh brother, I want to adopt Emily!"

"Good for you…WHAT?"

"I want to adopt Emily!"

"Seriously?"

"I've never been so serious about anything in my whole life."

"Really…how ironic."

"What's ironic?"

"Did I say ironic? I meant…uh…suitcase!"

"Suitcase? Oh, it must be the latest trend for the young people."

"Uh…yeah."

"What's it mean?"

"Uh…kind of a mix between wearing a suit, and packing the suit in a case. You know, as in…uh… "That's _so_ suitcase!""

"So you think my idea is suitcase? So I should adopt her?"

"Uh…can ghosts do that?"

"I don't know, but I say they can. It's not like we have a government. George Washington and John Adams are always trying to change that, but they're not going anywhere with it."

"You know them?"

"Of course. I _am_ the owner of the most populated haunted vicinity of all time, am I not?"

"Oh, of course! And I think it's a great idea for you to…uh…be Emily's father, but I don't know if adoption will work."

"Why not?"

"Well, uh, let's just say that there's more than meets the eye with Emily."

"Like?"

"Oh…nothing important. Forget what I said. It's a great idea."

"But it won't work!"

"Why not? Didn't you just explain to me why it _could _work?"

"Don't you get it?"

"Get what?"

"If you move away, then Emily will hate me for not stopping you, and she won't let me adopt her!"

"How would you stop me?"

"Well you know, I could always imprison your soul and make you doomed to stay for all eternity, but you seem like such a nice person, I wouldn't want to do that."

"So you're saying, that if I move away, then you can't adopt Emily?"

"Precisely."

"Oh! Why can't we just stay here! Doesn't she realize that she's messing around with fate here?"

"No. Obviously not."

"If only there was some way to make her change her mind…"

They thought this over for a couple of minutes.

"I've got it!" shouted the ghost host. "Your mother obviously isn't going to be influenced into changing her mind by normal standards. So we'll just have to use some…"

"Paranormal standards?" asked Scarlet.

"Precisely. Now if we go to Madam Leota, she can bewitch your mother into wanting to stay and –"

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. That's where I draw the line."

"Oh, don't worry, it won't damage her or anything, just get her to –"

"No, not that, Madam Leota."

"Well, it won't damage her either –"

"No, I mean, well sorry, but me and Madam Leota just don't mix."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, to make a long story short, let's just say that I…uh…kind of have some things against Madam Leota, and I kind of think that you'd have an even worse chance of adopting Emily if I went to see her."

"Please? This isn't just some "Oh, Madam Leota did such and whatever to me, now I can't see her", this is important!"

"I'm sorry! I can't explain, but trust me, I can't go see her!"

"Fine!" shouted the ghost host, "If you don't want to STAY HERE!"

Scarlet waited for a couple minutes.

"Hello?" she finally called. "My, he certainly comes and goes quickly!"

"BOO!" shouted someone from behind her.

"Emily!" cried Scarlet. "Thank goodness it's you! Listen, you won't believe what you just missed!"

"What did I miss?"

"Good grief, what didn't you miss? Ok, listen. First, my Mommy said we were moving, then Master Gracey said he was adopting you –"

"He can't adopt me! I'm already his daughter!"

"Yeah, but are you really in the mood to tell him that?"

"Uh…no, not really. And what do you mean, you're moving?"

"_Long_ story. And then Madam Leota –"

"Hold it. Madam Leota? Ok, we have to take this to my uncles."

"Huh?"

"They told me that they're forming a 'Secret Society Against Madam Loopy-Headed', and if I find information on her that I should report it. I think they're planning to get rid of her all together. They say that they've stood around doing nothing for to long, and it's time that they took some action."

"Okay, fine! Let's go!"


	34. Secret Society Against Madam Loopyheaded

Chapter 34

The Secret Society Against Madam Loopy-Headed

Down in the crypt when Scarlet had finished telling everyone about her experiences, the hitchhiker ghosts were not too happy with the situation.

"The nerve of that –"

"Watch your language, we've got children here."

"Shut up! I'm talkin' here!"

"You're talkin', I'm talkin'! He can't adopt Em! She deserves better than that!"

"But the fact that he brought Madam Loser into the picture…I JUST DON'T GET IT!"

"I know! How could he even have the guts to do that!"

"Cause he's a stupid freak ya morons!"

"Will you _please_ stop giving negative remarks about my father!"

"Kid, he ain't good enough to be your father."

"You're better off without him."

"_Much _better."

"Regardless of that, he's my father, and there's nothing any of us can do about it!"

"Sure there is! Go find a time machine, and then just kill him, before he even meets your mother!"

"Oh yeah, that's just great, except for the little fact that, I WOULDN'T EXIST!"

"Spoil sport."

"Will you all _please_ stop arguing?" exclaimed Scarlet, "I need to know what to do! On the one hand, I could ignore my better judgement, go to Madam Leota, and stay here, on the other hand, I could act like a reasonable human being with common sense, not go to Madam Leota, and not stay here."

"Tough choice."

"Kid, ya just can't go to Madam Loo Loo Head!"

"We're talking about our reputation here!"

"But she can't leave!" exclaimed Emily.

"There's gotta be something better to do."

"Like?"

"Gettin' um."

"Getting who?" asked Scarlet and Emily at the same time.

"Getting' Madam Lost Her Mind and Master Goofball."

"Not the ghost host!"

"Not my father!"

"Get Madam Leota, not him!"

"Yes, him! We're tired of havin' to live in the shadows! We're tired of livin' in a house that's owned by our enemy! We're tired of havin' to keep Emily a secret, just because her father's in love with a crystal ball! Who's with me?"

"Let's get him!" cried the other two hitchhiking ghosts.

The three of them flew through the wall of the crypt.

"Oh, and just in case you kids try to stop us…", said one, as he locked the doors.


	35. IL Beback

Chapter 35

I.L. Beback

"No! Let us out!" they cried, banging on the door.

"Hey, wait, you can fly out, Emily!" cried Scarlet. "You can go stop them!"

"I can't!" exclaimed Emily. "They put a ghost shield on it!"

"A what?"

"A ghost shield! It prevents ghosts from flying through stuff!"

"Great! Now what are we going to do!?"

"If only we had something to break down the door with!"

" Did somebody call for a sledgehammer?" said a ghost, bursting suddenly out of the ground.

"Who are you?"

"My name is I. L. Beback. But please, call me I. L."

"_You're_ I. L. Beback?"

"Yep. Have you heard of me?"

"Well actually –", began Scarlet.

"No time! Save it for later! Can you break down the door?" gasped Emily.

"Uh…yeah. Stand back!" he cried, as he raised a huge sledgehammer and struck the door, which crumbled to pieces.

"Later!" he cried, as he disappeared back into the ground.


	36. Hurry!

Chapter 36

Hurry!

"Hey, what's going on?" cried the ghosts in the graveyard.

"Come on!" shouted Emily, "Hurry!"

They ran through the graveyard and past all the shouting ghosts. They threw open the cemetery gates and rushed out.

"Hey! Where do ya think you're goin'?" shouted the caretaker. When they didn't stop he cried, "Skinny! Sic 'em!"

The dog began to charge at them.

"Uh! Not now!" panted Scarlet as she threw a rock at his head, knocking him out.

"Yes!" exclaimed Scarlet.

"Come on!" cried Emily, as they burst through the door of the mansion.

"Now what?" cried Scarlet.

Just then they heard a scream from upstairs.

"The séance room!" they both exclaimed, as they took off.


	37. The Confession

Chapter 37

The Confession 

They burst in to find Master Gracey and Madam Leota being cornered by the three hitchhiking ghosts.

"Gus!" cried the ghost host, "It's me! You know, cousin George?"

"Cousin?!" exclaimed Scarlet and Emily.

"Uh…I have an extended family. Hey, what are you doing here anyway?"

"We came to stop you!" cried Scarlet.

"Yeah, and to protect my father!" exclaimed Emily.

"Huh?" exclaimed Master Gracey and Madam Leota.

"Emily", sighed Gus, "I hate to hand it to ya, but sometimes you can be really stupid."

"That's right", exclaimed Emily, ignoring Gus, "FATHER. F-A-T-H-E-R."

"I don't understand –"

"Oh brother!" cried Scarlet, "You are _so_ dense!"

"Well, I mean I _will_ be her father, but not yet, only if YOU'LL GET HELP FROM MADAM LEOTA!"

"Never!" screamed Scarlet. "Not after what she did to Emily!"

"What!" cried Madam Leota, "I don't even know who this brat is!"

"Not her you idiot! EMILY CAVANAUGH GRACEY!"

A hush fell over the room.

"What?" hissed Madam Leota.

"Emily – Cavanaugh – Gracey", Scarlet said right in her face.

"Then that kid is their daughter?" whispered Madam Leota in a voice tense with anger.

"That's right."

"Ahhh!" screamed Emily at Madam Leota. "Murderer! FILTHY HIDEOUS OLD MURDERER!"

"You'll pay", hissed Madam Leota, "oh, you'll pay.

Spirits around us

Answer my call

Spooks in the graveyard

Ghosts at the ball.

Every dead soul

In the mansion and world

Unite with me now

And KILL THESE TWO GIRLS!

Mwahahahaha!"

Then she began in a soft, taunting, singsong voice,

"Join now the spirits

In nuptial gloom

A ravishing bride

And her vanishing groom!

So long girlies!" she shouted, "It's your funeral!"


	38. The Attempted Escape

Chapter 38

The Attempted Escape

Then it was quiet. Dead quiet.

"Run", whispered Scarlet.

Nobody moved.

"RUN!" she screamed.

They finally got her message.

Scarlet, Emily, and the hitchhiker ghosts tore out of the séance room and flew down the hall. Unfortunately, it was the hall of doors. And thanks to Madam Leota's spell, the ghosts had found a sudden burst of strength. Doors suddenly weren't their problem.

"Ahh!" screamed Scarlet as one grabbed her, but she broke free. "We've got to get out of here!" she cried.

"I thought you weren't afraid of ghosts!" exclaimed Emily.

"These aren't ghosts! These are ghosts under the spell of an evil psycho!"

They dashed through all the rooms of the mansion, searching for the front door. Wherever they went, ghosts attacked them. They all just became a blur as they ran past.

"I know where we are!" cried Scarlet suddenly, "This is the stretching gallery! That means that the foyer should be right in there!"

"Careful!" cried Gus, "There might be someone in there!"

"That's the risk we'll have to take", said Scarlet, as she pushed open the door.


	39. Ella

Chapter 39

Ella

"Shoot! There is someone in there!" cried Emily.

"No wait! That's just Ella, the maid! She's a mortal! She can't be under the spell!"

"Phew!"

"Ella!" cried Scarlet, "We need you to let us out! The whole mansion is going crazy!"

"Oh, oh dear. I was afraid thees might happon. Mortals in the mansion is vewy distressing."

"Listen lady, just open the door!" exclaimed Ezra.

"Oh, oh yes…Ezra?! Is that you?"

"Ella? Ella Piagét?"

"Oh! It is you! You scoundrel! I thought I told you I nevar wanted to zee you again!"

"Uh, yeah, listen baby not now ok –"

"Oh! You, you rotten American pig!"

"You know each other?" asked Scarlet.

"Unfortunately!" cried a very angry Ella. "He told me he loved me! But all he ever wanted frwom me was my money! Well, I got rid of him before he could preepose, thank goodneese!"

"Ha!" laughed Phineas, "Could never be mean to the ladies could ya?"

"Oh, shut up! Listen Ellie, I don't know who told you that, but it ain't true! Ya know I love you! I wondered why you never showed up for dinner that one time…well, anyway, I'm sorry, all right? Now will you please let us through?"

"Liar! Why should I?"

"Because Madam Leota went crazy!" cried Scarlet.

"And now she's sending all the ghosts out to get us!" finished Emily.

"Well, I don't know who thees Madom Leota is, but if she is trying to get him, then I am completely on hewr side! Now go!"

"Ah, we ain't afraid of you!" cried Gus.

"Yeah! You're just a mortal!"

"Oh, oh is zat so?" exclaimed Ella, as her flesh slowly rotted away, until she was nothing but a skeleton. "Now what do you say to zat?"

"Oh great, what a great time to be dead!" exclaimed Scarlet.

"Ya know what baby? You're even more beautiful when you're dead."

"Get them!" she shrieked, as hundreds of ghosts flew out of the walls toward them.

"Uh oh. RUN!" screamed Scarlet, as they all turned around and ran farther into the mansion.

The ghosts chased them all over the house and finally back into the séance room.

"We're trapped!" cried Emily.

"N-no! Please! I-I'll do anything! Anything!"

They turned around, to see a shocking scene.


	40. Madam Leota's Downfall

Chapter 40

Madam Leota's Downfall

There was Master Gracey, holding Madam Leota's crystal ball high above the ground, prepared to smash it to pieces.

"Please! Don't kill me!"

"Too long", shouted the ghost host, "Too long have you terrorized the occupants of my home. Too long have I been under your evil influence. Too long have I went along with your evil schemes just because I believed that you would bring my father back. But you never did, did you. No, all you did was kill my guests, and MURDER MY BRIDE! You think you're going to get away with this? Well, you better think it over again. After all", he added, in a cruel whisper, "it's _your_ funeral."

"No! Stop! Don't drop it!"

Everyone turned to look. It was Felicia, the witch!

"Please Sir", she said bowing to Master Gracey, "don't smash it. It would only make things worse. You see, you sacrificing your life for Emily caused the spell to backfire. Madam Leota only used her powers for evil, and they got mixed up when they felt love. It was your love that confined her in her ball for all these years. If you break it, the shield of love will disintegrate, her spirit will escape, and her reign of terror will begin all over again."

"Well, then what do you propose we should do?" asked Master Gracey.

"Leave it to me", she said. Then she pulled a small purse from out of her pocket and dumped the powdered contents over the crystal ball as she muttered something.

"What did you do?"

"That was called me taking away her powers. She can't do anything now. She will be the outcast of the entire mansion."

"Whoa! It's a mortal! What's a mortal doing here? Hey lady, whatcha do to Mammy Lee?"

"Who's that crazy –"

"I'm not crazy

I'm just a little impaired –"

"Oh, please", cried the ghost host, "don't start!"

"And just to make her stay a little less enjoyable", said Felicia, "Sagtnoady Faaonlrdweavyes Sagtnoady!" she screamed, pointing her finger at Dude.

"Whoa, like, what was that?"

"That was called you having to stay with Madam Leota for all eternity."

"NOOO!" shrieked Madam Leota.

"Shut up!" everyone shouted at her.

"Righteous! But you know, I didn't need a spell or nothing, I was gonna stay here with Mammy Lee anyway!"

"Good!" they all cried.

They ran out of the séance room and slammed the door behind them.


	41. Explanations

Chapter 41

Explanations

"Thanks, Felicia!" exclaimed Scarlet, "But how did you know we were here?"

"Oh, that's easy. Your cats came to Kitty and told her everything, and then Kitty told me. I can understand her."

"Wow! I always knew that cats were the smartest creatures alive! Or in this case, dead. By the way, where did you get that potion? I thought you needed a brain to make anything. You didn't get Bobby, did you?"

"Oh, no, I found another one. I got it from a dog outside. You know, I never liked dogs. Nasty fowl creatures."

"Totally."

"There's one thing I don't get", said Emily, turning to the ghost host, "I thought you loved Madam Leota. How come you went against her?"

"Well, daughter, daughter, I like the sound of that, I hope you know that I would never love anyone but your mother. Madam Leota just had me under a spell is all. A particularly strong one I might add. But I guess tonight I just found my strength and broke it."

"You know, you really ought to explain that to mother. You see, she pushes everyone who comes along out the window because she thinks it's you. She wants to kill you because she found out somehow that you supposedly loved Madam Leota."

"Please, never mention her name to me again. And anyway, wouldn't she know that I was dead by now? It's been, oh, one or two hundred years. Even if it wasn't for …um…a certain thing that won't be mentioned, I still would have died."

"Well, you see, she kind of lost her mind after she found out. So now she's in the attic pushing everyone out the window. That's how I died."

"It is? Oh I'm so sor –SHE'S HERE?"

"Where?"

"In the mansion? She's here?!"

"Yeah, in the attic. Didn't you know that?"

"No, I had no idea! Oh my gosh! This is wonderful, no wait it's terrible, she hates me, no, but I can explain to her, no, but she'll still hate me! Oh good grief, I'm so confused!"

"Well, you can attempt to explain to her."

"I've got it! I can at least go and attempt to explain to her!" he cried.

Emily shrugged. "Hello! Are you even here anymore? No, obviously not."

"I bet he went to the attic. Let's follow him! This I just _can't_ miss."


	42. The Bride and The Groom

Chapter 42

The Bride and The Groom

So Scarlet, Emily, her uncles, and Felicia climbed up the stairs to the attic.

"We better keep our distance", whispered Scarlet when they got there, "just in case she tries anything."

"You mean like pushing unsuspecting innocent people out the

window?"

"Um, yeah, pretty much."

They watched as Master Gracey slowly made his way across the attic. At least they thought he was, considering the path in the stuff he was making.

"Vhat is goving on?" asked Dracula as he came over with his wife.

"Shh! We're watching here!"

Suddenly Master Gracey stopped. He was in front of the bride. And the bride was angry. Really angry.

She gave a bloodcurdling scream and lunged towards Master Gracey with her arms open, ready to strike. Unfortunately for her, Master Gracey was already a ghost. Her arms went right through him.

"What?" she murmured, as she tried to push him again.

The same thing happened.

"Die! Die!" she screamed, as she repeatedly tried to push him over and over again. She started to sob hysterically as she failed one time after another.

"Die!" she screamed between sobs, "Die die die die die!"

"I- I'm sorry Emily! I would die for you, but I can't! I'm already dead, same as you. And I know you have reason to hate me, I would hate me too if I were in your shoes, but you don't have to hate me anymore! Madam Leota's gone, and her spell is off! Don't you get it? I don't love her, I love you!"

Then he kissed her. As he did, he slowly became visible, and she slowly stopped crying.

"  
There", he said, "now do you see?"

"George?" she murmured, sounding confused. "Oh, George! You came back! You really came back! No wait, I hate you. But I can't. Yes, I have to. But you came back! But –"

"It's ok now Emily! The spell is broken! We're finally free!"

"Free?"

"Yes! Madam Leota's gone! Her spells have no affect anymore!"

"I hate Madam Leota. She's evil."

"I know, I hate her too. But now she's gone!"

"_You_ hate her?"

"Yes! Of course! I never loved her. I always loved you!"

"You did?"

"Yes, Emily! Yes! Do you see now?"

"Oh, George!" she cried, hugging him.

"Congratulations! I'm very happy for you both. When will the wedding be?"

They turned around to see the hatbox ghost.

"Wedding?" asked the bride, "You still want to marry me?"

"Well, yes! Of course! If it's legal."

"It's probably just as legal as adopting ghosts", said Emily, stepping in. "Hello mother. Do you remember me?"

"Yes! You're her", she said pointing to the picture on the wall of her, "and that's me."

"  
Oh, you remember! Does this mean that you're cured?"

"I don't remember anything being wrong with me. Was there?"

"Well, kind of…but not anymore."

"Your eyes!" exclaimed Scarlet suddenly, "Something's different about them. They're…they're more focused or something. They aren't distant and lost anymore."

"Emily darling, you have lovely eyes."

"Really? I never noticed!"

"Well you do, just like Emily."

"Me or her?"

"This is going to be confusing."

"Who cares! We can finally be a family."

"Does this mean that everything actually turned out okay? Is everyone going to live happily ever after and everything?"

"No!" exclaimed Scarlet, "I still have to move. And now there's no one to make her spontaneously change her mind or anything."

"You need someone to bewitch your mother's mind?" asked Felicia, "Oh that's easy. I can do that."

"I don't know how much she's going to like getting her mind taken over by a witch. You know how she is with witches."

"Well, too bad for her."

"Yeah", said Emily, "you have to stay!"

"Hey!" exclaimed the ghost bride, "I can walk again! I'm not stuck!"

"That was probably one of her spells, so it broke too!"

"Alright then, follow me. I'm pretty sure I know where she is."


	43. Persuading

Chapter 43

Persuading 

They all walked out of the attic and down to the kitchen.

"Oh, Scarlet, I was just about to call you. We're leaving first thing tomorrow morning. You need to get packed."

"Actually, I don't. I told you once and I'll tell you again, I'm not moving."

"Yes you are, and oh, don't bring all those ghosts in here. They'll contaminate my nice, clean, pure kitchen!"

"My dear lady", said the ghost host, stepping forward, "I can assure you of three things. First, I can assure you that we aren't going to track anything into your kitchen, which may I put is actually mine. I can also assure you that if your idea of a nice, clean, pure kitchen is a ghost free one, than you have a _long_ way to go. In case you haven't noticed already, you are living in the most haunted house in all the world, and there's nothing you or anyone else can do about it, so you might as well get used to it. This kitchen is in fact one of the most populated rooms in the entire mansion. Just because you can't see them, doesn't mean they aren't there. Believe me, I was one of them, until your daughter reunited me with my bride. And lastly, I can assure you that you and your family, and _especially _Scarlet, aren't moving anywhere."

"Oh really? And I suppose that you and your army of the living dead are going to stop me?"

"No, not really. Just Felicia."

"Who? Oh! You! You evil witch! How dare you ever show your face to me again!"

"Hey, sue me. It's my house too, isn't it?"

"You", she exclaimed, pointing at the ghost host, "I command you to make her leave at once!"

"Sorry, but I'm not making her go anywhere. In fact, I'm making sure she stays here, until she can um…persuade you to stay."

"Uh oh. I don't like the sound of that."

"Sagtnoady Sagtnoady Uawnnhtdeinl Yaionud Daliniedlve!" Felicia chanted. At the end, she picked a tomato off the counter and placed it on her head.

"What's the tomato for?" whispered Scarlet.

"Oh, nothing. I just felt like putting it there."

"So did the spell work? Do I get to stay?"

"Why don't you test it?"

"Hey Mommy", said Scarlet, "what are we doing tomorrow?"

"Oh, nothing important. You can just play with all your ghost friends."

"I hate to contradict you again", said the ghost host, "but there is something important tomorrow. My bride and I are to be married. And you're all invited. Even you."


	44. The Wedding Preparations

Chapter 44

The Wedding Preparations

"Hey wait", said Gus, "do you mean us too?"

"Of course! You are my favorite cousin. And your…um…friends, can come too."

"You mean after all we did to ya? I mean, we hated your guts for ages! We tried to kill ya tonight! And you don't care?"

"Well, if it weren't for you, none of this would have happened, now would it?"

"No, ya know I guess you're right. I guess that makes us pretty important."

"Ya know, I'm sorry for hating ya all these years."

"Yeah, me too."

"You'll take good care of our kid, right?"

"Yes, of course. Wait, what do you mean _your_ kid?"

"Oh, we're her uncles. Well, maybe I'm her second cousin or something, but we raised her her whole life. Ain't that right Em?"

"Oh yes. We lived in alleys and broken down trains –"

"You what?"

"And it was a blast! You have no idea what it's like to live that way."

"Yes I do, actually. I used to be a pirate."

"Oh, how exciting!" exclaimed the ghost bride, "I'm marrying a pirate!"

"Well I must say, you three did a wonderful job bringing up Emily. I could never thank you enough. I know, how would you like to be my best men?"

"_Three _best men?"

"Hey, we're ghosts! We don't live by normal standards! We don't live at all! We can have three best men if we darn well please."

"Well in that case, we'd be honored."

"Wonderful! And Scarlet and Emily can be the flower girls."

"Oh fun! But are you sure the other ghosts will like it if a mortal is at a ghost wedding?"

"If not, they better get used to it. You're going to be staying here for a long time!"

"Felicia", asked the ghost bride, "will you be my maid of honor?"

"Oh, of course! Thank you!"

"But we still need a ring bearer."

"Well", said Scarlet, "maybe my brothers could be, if they aren't too scared."

"Well, let's go make them not be scared!"

Everyone left the kitchen and went upstairs.

Noelle went back to chopping tomatoes, only she seemed to be missing one…


	45. Charley, The Ring Bearer

Chapter 45

Charley, The Ring Bearer

Charley's and Bobby's rooms were also in the hall of doors.

First they went into Charley's.

"Charley!" called Scarlet, "Charley?"

Charley was sitting on his bed, intently fixed on playing Gameboy.

"Hello!" called Scarlet, taking the Gameboy away from him and turning it off, "Earth to Charley!"

"No! I never saved my game! Now I have to start over! NOOOOOOO!"

"Oh brother! Get a hold of yourself! It's a stupid electronic device! It's not real! And besides, I thought someone turned it into something by now."

"They did. Madam Leota turned it into a plate of spaghetti. But it just turned back! YIPPEE!"

"Well duh, of course it turned back. We defeated Madam Leota. Her spells have no power any more."

"Really? When was this?"

"Probably around when you were on the eighteenth level or so."

"Oh then?"

"Yeah. YOU'RE WASTING YOUR LIFE AWAY PLAYING THAT STUPID THING! Well, you can't play it for awhile. Tomorrow is the ghost host's and ghost bride's wedding, and you are going to be a ring bearer."

"I am? Who are they?"

"Them", said Scarlet, pointing behind her.

"Ahh! No! Ghosts! Get them away from me!"

"Oh brother. Will you snap out of it? They're my friends! Ghosts won't hurt you. Well, not now anyway, since Madam Leota's gone. So will you come to the wedding?"

"I guess. But then I'm going straight back to my room."

"Uh, whatever. Come on, now we need to get Bobby. I think he'll be a little more difficult."


	46. Bobby, The Ring Bearer

Chapter 46

Bobby, The Ring Bearer

When they went into Bobby's room, they found him sitting straight up on his bed starring straight at the blank wall.

"Hi, Bobby", said Scarlet. "Bobby?" she asked, waving a hand in front of his face. "This is going to be harder than I thought. Will one of you scare him to get him to snap out of it?"

The ghosts all took a turn trying to scare him, but he wouldn't move a muscle.

"Oh brother. Wait! I have one more idea! Charley, do you have any food?"

"Uh, just this piece of cookie", he said, reaching into his pocket.

"Perfect. Hey Bobby! See the cookie?" she asked, waving it in front of his face.

"C-cookie?" he whimpered. "COOKIE!"

Suddenly he sprang up and snatched the cookie out of her hands.

"My cookie!" he sang.

"Yes, yes, your cookie. Bobby, would you like to meet some of my friends?"

Taking his hand, she led him over to the ghosts.

"Ghosts!" he screamed, and dove under the bed. "Ghosts!" he screamed, as he scrambled out again.

"What ghosts?"

Just then, I. L. Beback came up through the floor.


	47. The Ghost Bride's Ring

Chapter 47

The Ghost Bride's Ring

"Sorry if I scared the little tyke. I just wanted to see if you guys made it okay."

"Oh yes, thank you, we're just fine. Oh, but don't go yet, I have something to ask you. Do you have a seashell necklace?"

"Sure", he said, lifting it up, "Why?"

"Is it true that you stole that from M. T. Tomb?"

"No, I borrowed it. He told me before he died that he wanted me to return it once a year to the sea, and then bring it back to him. I have no idea why he attacked me."

"Well I do. He thinks you tried to steal it. Now he hates you, and he told me to bring it back to him if I ever see it."

"Well by all means, here! Take it!"

"Well, thanks! Hey, how come you have that sledgehammer?"

"Because I died with it. I was using it to break open his tomb when I died. Lucky I had it though, so I could break you girls out of that crypt."

"What crypt?" asked the ghost host.

"That big family one. You know, in the graveyard."

"What?! You smashed my crypt?"

"Well, the girls were stuck in there. I had to get them out so they could save you!"

"Well, yes, I suppose that's true –"

"Pardon me Sir", interrupted Felicia, "but I just fixed your crypt."

"Really? Wonderful!"

"Hey", said Charley, "If we're going to be ring bearers, don't we need a ring?"

"Of course! I. L., could you do us one more favor?"

"Sure, name it."

"See", she whispered, so the ghost bride couldn't hear, "the bride's ring is outside, but it's imprinted in the stone. Do you think you could use your sledgehammer to chisel it out?"

"Yep!"

"Only be careful, it's really small. Don't break it."

"Oh, don't worry, I won't. I know this sledgehammer like the back of my hand. I can chisel on all kinds of stuff. I've been practicing."

"Practicing?" asked the ghost host, "On _what_?"

"Uh…later!" he called, as he disappeared through the floor again.

"Come on", said the bride, "I want to get married already!"


	48. The Wedding

Chapter 48

The Wedding

The next day, everything was ready. The wedding was to be held in the ballroom, and 997 of the ghosts were invited, all except Madam Leota and Dude. The flower girls, ring bearers, best men, maid of honor, bridesmaids, preacher, and groom were all in place. Now the only one missing was the bride.

Suddenly, the door on the opposite wall opened, and the bride stepped out. She no longer was glowing blue and purple and actually looked cheerful and happy.

Then the organist started playing "Here Comes the Bride". And for once, in the history of the haunted mansion, something was played in the right key, instead of minor. She no longer needed to be taunted because, for once, she wasn't standing at an imaginary alter, for once, her dream was coming true.

When the song ended, the preacher spoke.

"Do you, Master George Gracey Jr., take Emily Cavanaugh Gracey, to be your lawful wedded wife? For better or for worse, for rich or for poor, in sickness or in health, actually you're ghosts, you can't get sick, till death do you part?"

"Death parted us once, but it certainly won't do it again. It's not till death do us part, it's for all eternity. I do."

"And do you, Emily Cavanaugh Gracey, take Master George Gracey Jr., to be your lawful wedded husband? For better or for worse, for rich or for poor, in health or…um…health, for all eternity?"

"Oh yes, I do."

"Now take her hand and place the ring on her finger and say, "With this ring –""

"With this ring."

"I thee wed."

"I thee wed."

"My ring!" gasped Emily, "This is my old ring! Where'd you ever get it?"

"Oh, you can thank Scarlet for that."

The preacher cleared his throat. "Then by the power vested in me by the First Presbyterian Church of England in 1674, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride."

The entire mansion shook with cheers as the couple kissed. Finally, the ghost bride's dream had come true.

After the wedding was a "swinging reception". All the ghosts danced, even the ballroom dancers, which technically didn't have to dance anymore since all Madam Leota's spells were broken.

Ezra and Ella even got back together again (with a little help from Felicia) and danced the night away.


	49. Tomb Sweet Tomb

Chapter 49

Tomb Sweet Tomb

At the end of the party, all the ghosts went outside and stood in the driveway and watched the bride and groom climb into a hearse with an invisible horse that said, "Just Married" on the back.

"Catch!" cried the bride, as she threw her bouquet of decaying roses out the window.

"Oh!" exclaimed Ella, surprised when she caught them. "Oh my, I nevar expected anything like thees to happon. Oh, well, I sappose it won't be so bad", she said, taking Ezra's hand.

"Would ya look at that", exclaimed Phineas, "he's leavin' us!"

"Come on guys, I gotta get settled down at some point. Besides, it's not like I'm goin' anywhere. I'm just bringin' her in."

"Goodbye! Good luck!" everyone called, as they rode away for their honeymoon.

"Where are they going to go?" asked Scarlet.

"Do you know how many haunted hotels there are in the world? I bet they find so many that they won't be able to decide _where_ to go."

Eventually everyone went inside, except for Scarlet and Emily, who watched until the hearse drove out of sight.

"I'm so glad everything turned out alright", sighed Emily.

"I'm just glad I get to stay at my home. I mean tomb!"

They both laughed.

"Tomb sweet tomb!"

**THE END**


End file.
